Web site of the month: Almost a Doctor

Almost a Doctor is a free UK site aimed at medical students, junior doctors and other health professionals to help you (as the site says) "learn about stuff".




The site contains revision notes, flashcards, mind maps as well as  an online medical encyclopaedia which you can browse by category. 

The content of the site is written by both health professionals and students, but it is always reviewed by a doctor before publication to ensure all the content is accurate and of good quality.

Almost a Doctor is a really useful resource and highly recommended.

Web site for the month: Critical Care Northampton

We have picked a site with a local connection this month, Critical Care Northampton. The site was founded by Northampton General Hospital consultant Jonny Wilkinson and is a great resource for anyone interested in FOAMed (Free Open Access Medical Education), emergency care, ITU, anaesthesia and POCUS (Point of Care Ultra Sound).

https://criticalcarenorthampton.com

With two other consultant colleagues acting as editors, the site features a variety of content and resources, practical advice, news and reviews including:

• ICU emergencies
• Guidelines
• How to guides
• Downloadable resources
• Evidence and research articles
•  Medical calculators
• Mnemonics
• And a lot more...

Critical Care Northampton is a great resource for consultants, junior doctors and medical students, designed to "keep you out of trouble" as the site says, it's well worth a visit.

Web site of the month: eLfH - How to search for literature effectively

The Library Service offers regular training workshops and one-to-one sessions on literature searching, but if you have trouble making those, or just need a quick refresher, Health Education England's e-Learning for Healthcare programme can help.

There are currently three short modules on offer (each around 20 minutes in length) that give you a good introduction to the basic of literature searching:

• Module 1 Introduction to searching
• Module 2 Where do I start searching?
• Module 3 How do I start to develop a search strategy?

Each module can be used for reference or you can complete the whole thing to obtain a certificate (good for evidence of CPD!).

There are more modules currently in development, but if you want a good place to start to develop or refresh your searching skills, these modules might be just the thing.

You can also find a whole suite of videos on YouTube from NICE showing how to use the HDAS interface for searching the literature. 

Web site of the month: Educator Hub

Educator Hub is a new e-learning resource aimed at educators and supervisors of doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, pharmacists, allied health professionals and healthcare scientists that has recently gone live.

The content, which is hosted on the Health Education England e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH) Hub, includes both academic and video-based practical modules, such as supervision, feedback, workplace based assessments and Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP).

These have been migrated from HEE Kent, Surrey, Sussex's e-Training for Trainers (etft) platform together with London's Multi-professional Faculty Development modules. Complementary content from other regions will also be included to produce a national resource.

Modules are linked to the new 'Professional Development Framework for Educators' which is being adopted in London and South East in the first instance. The framework domains map to professional regulatory standards for education and training including HEE's Quality Framework standards and are applicable to all educators working in clinical practice and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as guidance for best practice.

Nearly 50 modules will be available initially, with complementary resources from elsewhere to be included in due course. All the resources are free to access (just browse the catalogue of modules). Registration with the site allows you to track your learning, provide feedback and keep copies of certificates of completion. 

Web site of the month: Medicines Learning Portal: Clinical problem-solving for pharamacists

The Medicines Learning Portal is designed for pharmacists in their first 1000 days of practice,
although the content may be of interest to the wider pharmacy community.

The site aims to support pharmacists in developing their clinical problem solving skills by:

• Providing knowledge about medicines, and addressing basic principles of medicines safety for key subject areas.
• Showing the right questions to ask when problem-solving.
• Recommending sources of information about medicines.
• Guiding pharmacists on how to apply their professional judgement.
• Advising on communication techniques for delivering expert advice.

The site is divided up into a number of areas including:

• Clinical tutorials which covers subjects such as adverse reactions and interactions
• Specialist clinical topics including mental health and palliative care
• Professional skills which looks at topics such as calculations, communication and decision making
• An on-call section to help prepare foundation level hospital pharmacists to undertake an on-call role.

The site is produced by University Hospitals Southampton in partnership with Health Education England and Thames Valley and Wessex Chief Pharmacists' Network, It is also endorsed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Medical Masterclass - now available as an app

Medical Masterclass is a learning package designed to help trainee physicians as well as and doctors undertaking the MRCP.

We have had a subscription to the web site for some time, but the Royal College of Physicians has now produced a rather nifty app as another way to access this revision package.

Available for both Android and iOS (Apple) devices, the app is a well designed, easy to use way of accessing all the content from Medical Masterclass. It also tracks your performance as you go through revision questions, giving you a good idea of how you are performing.

The app itself is free, but to set up an account on Medical Masterclass you will need to contact the Richmond Library to obtain a user name and password to access the content.

If you are a doctor in training, undertaking the MRCP or just wanting to test your medical knowledge, Medical Masterclass is a good starting point and the new app has just made it even easier to access.

Web site of the month: NICE learning resources

NICE have developed a range of online educational resources. Developed in conjunction with other organisations, the resources are designed to support the implementation of NICE guidance and putting evidence into practice.

The resources are all free to access, but you will need to registered to use some of them.

Topics available include:

• Anxiety disorders
• Dementia
• Diabetic foot problems
• Hip fracture
• Obesity
• Prescribing of antipsychotics

Web site of the month: First steps for Health Care Assistants

Produced by the Royal College of Nursing, the First Steps site is designed to support people getting started in their health care assistant career.

First Steps is a simple e-learning package that takes you through a basic introduction to the work of health care assistants. The site contains a series of short sections which include:

• The role of the HCA
• Patient safety and person-centred care
• Safeguarding
• Interpersonal and communications skills
• Health and safety
• Infection control

The site also features downloadable content such as a reflective diary and a competency checklist which is mapped against National Occupational Standards and the NHS Knowledge and Skills framework. You can even take an assessment quiz to check your learning.

Completely free to access, the site is a really useful starting point for those beginning their career as a health care assistant.

Web site of the month: Meds IQ

Medication errors are a significant cause of preventable harm to children and young people. Meds IQ is a brand new web site that seeks to support the improvement in paediatric patient safety.

www.medsiq.org

The site has sections on:

• Safe prescribing
• Drug error reporting
• Medicines reconciliation
• Supporting patients

Meds IQ brings together tools to support improved safety and reducing harm as well as examples of improvement projects (including contact details) that have made a real difference in the reduction of medication errors. Free registration is required to use some of the features.

The site also features:

• Resource library - see how others have tackled similar problems 
• Favourites - build your own menu of resources which are of most use to you 
• An online professional community - share your own ideas and learning
• E-learning resources – develop your understanding and skills in paediatric prescribing

Meds IQ is a really useful resource for any health professional working with children and young people who is involved in prescribing or drug administration.

Web site of the month: OpenLearn

OpenLearn provides access to all of the free elearning modules and material provided by the Open University.

www.open.edu/openlearn/

The site contains over 800 free courses, as well as video, audio and other learning materials. There are a large selection of health related courses with topics covered including:

• Ageing
• Family health
• Mental health
• Public health
• Healthcare computing and data

Other relevant topics covered include:

• Social care
• Psychology
• Management
• Education
• Maths and statistics

OpenLearn also has cultural, arts, language environmental, science, politics and finance courses.

To access OpenLearn you will first need to create a free account via a simple online registration process, but once you have done that you can access all of the OU's free content. 

OpenLearn is a really useful source of free educational material, whether with a work focus or more for personal interest, the site is well worth a look.

Medical Masterclass out of action Friday the 20th to Monday the 23rd of March

www.medical-masterclass.com/

Due to hardware changes in the Royal College of Physicians data centre, Medical Masterclass will be unavailable from 6 pm on Friday the 20th until 9 am on Monday the 23rd of March.

Medical Masterclass is an on-line resource from the Royal College of Physicians designed to support trainee doctors and those studying for the MRCP (UK) examinations (but is available to everyone). 

We have a number of logins that we can give out to library users for a monthly loan period. Access to the website includes:

• 3000 practice questions for MRCP (UK) parts 1 and 2 (written examination) with the option to select individual specialties if there are particular areas you want to focus your revision on
• Timed mock examinations
• Screencasts aimed specifically to help you with the MRCP (UK) PACES examination

New questions and practice exams are regularly added to the site so there is plenty of material here!

If you would like to find out more or would like a login to access the site please contact the Richmond Library.

Web sites of the month: Serum Rhubarb & MedExam

www.medexam.net

This month's sites have a local flavour as they have both been developed by Declan O'Kane, a consultant physician from Northampton General Hospital.

MedExam.net is an educational resource for students. It features over 1850 questions for undergraduate and post-graduate exams with detailed answers. The questions cover a large range of clinical topics.

The site is free to use (just register to get access)

Serum Rhubarb is a free to access web site aimed at medical students, junior doctors and those interested in clinical internal medicine.

The site features a lot of good quality content coupled with a very simple, easy to use layout.

Currently subject area covered include:

• Cardiology
• Endocrinology
• Gastroenterology and heptology
• Neurology
• Respiratory medicine
• Rheumatology

Both resources are great for students new to medicine or those needing to revise, and well worth a look.

Almost a Doctor

http://almostadoctor.co.uk/

Almost a Doctor was developed by (then) medical student Tom Leach in 2009 who shared his notes online with other students from Manchester University.

Since then the site has grown and Tom (now a junior doctor) was recognised by the Health Service Journal as one of 2013's top innovators and has featured in The Independent.

The site, aimed at medical students (but useful for  junior doctors, nurses and other clinical professions), features revision notes covering all stages of medical school.

Almost a Doctor has over 12,000 pages of content featuring course notes, articles and blogs, all edited by doctors. You can browse for information using broad categories or use the search facility to find what you are looking for. As well as different specialties, disease processes and anatomy, you can find information on clinical skills, data interpretation, drugs, examinations and scoring systems.

There is also an App for Apple devices with an Android version promised in early 2014.

Almost a Doctor contains a wealth of useful information and is well worth a look.

Clinicalskills.Net trial last few days

There is still time for you to have a look at the Clinicalskills.Net package and give us your feedback. Staff in NHFT can find the details on the Hub and staff at NGH on the Street.

We really would like to know what you think to help us decided on whether we should subscribe. The trial runs until the 31st of March.

Clinicalskills Net trial - still time to give your views

 As we previously mentioned in our Web Site of the Month feature, our trial of Clinicalskills.Net runs until the end of March, so there is still time for you to have a look at the package and give us your feedback.

Lots of staff have already told us their views but we are keen to have the widest possible feedback before deciding on if we should purchase it.

To gain access to Clinicalskills.net please see The Street for NGH staff or The Hub for NHFT staff, or contact one of the libraries.

We really would like to know what you think...

Web site of the month: trial of Clinicalskills.Net - your views needed

For the whole of March we are having a trial of Clinicalskills.Net and would really value your feedback.

Clinicalskills.Net is an on-line service that holds sets of illustrated clinical skills guidelines. It is designed to  help you understand the principles of a particular skill.

The information about best practice for over 160 procedures is delivered in a highly accessible format using clear graphics supported by text and references. Because clinicalskills.net is highly illustrated, it is very user friendly. It can also help to facilitate study for those whose first language is not English and those returning to work after a break.

All procedures featured are evidence-based with numerous click-through links to valuable national guidance and other published papers.

Clincalskills.Net could be of value for nurses, HCAs, AHPs, medical students, junior doctors, educators and more.

You can find the log in details for the site at any of our libraries. Alternatively, if you have access to the Northamptonshire Healthcare or Northampton General Hospital  Intranet sites (the Hub and the Street), you can find the details on our pages there.

Web site of the month: Health Knowledge

Health Knowledge was created for people working in public health, but contains high quality learning resources that are of use to the wider health care audience.

The site hosts a Public Health Textbook which covers all relevant public health skills and competencies and is free to access (as are all the things on Health Knowledge).

You will also find a number of e-learning resources covering epidemiology, health information and statistical methods. Each comes with a pre-course assessment, learning materials and ends with a final assessment which is graded and can be printed off for recording against CPD.

As well as the e-learning content there is a section of interactive learning material which includes presentations with an audio element and other material such as videos and workbooks that walks users through each subject. Areas covered in this section include:

• Learning from Stakeholders
• Obesity Care pathway Support Package
• Screening

A highlight is the material on critical appraisal called Finding and Appraising the Evidence. These six modules provide a general introduction to critical appraisal before taking you through the process of how to find evidence, and then going on to look at different types of research, such as randomised control trials and finishing with how to make sense of the evidence, which looks at statistics and outcome measures.

Each section also ends with a quiz to test your learning and there are links to further resources. This is an excellent introduction to a complex topic and is highly recommended.

New e-learning from the Royal College of Nursing

The RCN has launched two new e-learning modules available via the CPD Online Learning section of their web site.

Diabetes CPD at the RCN

Diabetes Essentials is designed to provide an overview of the core concepts of diabetes; diagnosis and current treatments and roles and responsibilities in regard to treating patients with diabetes.

HIV/AIDS - What You Need to Know provides some general guidance and up-to-date information, as well as a list of resources you can access, or direct others to, that provide more detailed information.

There are also a number of other CPD modules in the section:

• Dignity in health care
• First steps for health care assistants
• How trustworthy is your information?
• Making sense of patient safety
• NICE care - Preventing venous thromboembolism
• Sexual health for non-experts
• Supporting people's nutritional needs

No passwords are required and you do not have to be a member of the RCN to access the basic modules (although you will need to be to access other resources in the RCN's Learning Zone).

E-learning resource for doctors: apprasial and revalidation

The London Deanery have recently launched a set of e-learning resources to support doctors in appraisal and revalidation.

They are freely available for all doctors including primary care, secondary care and mental health and those in private healthcare.

The resources are aimed at supporting both appraisees and appraisers by providing guidance, tips and useful information about the appraisal process. 

These online learning modules take about 45 - 60 minutes to complete and cover a range of key  topics helpful for both appraisees and appraisers:  Getting the most out of your appraisal Top tips on developing your PDP  Quality improvement activity for appraisal and revalidation  Challenge in appraisal Calibrating supporting information in medical appraisal Tips for appraisers The modules are hosted on the BMJ learning platform and any doctor is able to register for free access.
As well as e-learning modules there are a collection of several short bite sized films (3-4 minutes) covering a range of key topics, helpful for both appraisees and appraisers :  Introduction to appraisal and revalidation GMC Domains Managing challenging situations in appraisals Multi Source Feedback and Patient Satisfaction Questionnaires Reflection  Gathering Supporting Information