SBAR Communication in Care Homes - elearning for healthcare
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This programme is in partnership with...
  • Health Education Kent, Surry and Sussex
  • Surrey and Sussex healthcare nhs trust
  • Sussex Community Trust

About the SBAR Communication in Care Homes programme

Unplanned admissions to hospital result from a patient’s condition changing in such a way that they are no longer safe to be looked after in the care facility in which they live. Hospital often becomes the default location for their care to be transferred to. These patients are often elderly, frail and have complex medical comorbidities. If the deteriorating patient is highlighted earlier to other healthcare professionals, unplanned admissions to hospital can be reduced.

This is a collaborative project between Sussex Community Trust and Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust and is funded from a grant by Health Education Kent, Surrey and Sussex with the aim of reducing admissions from hospital and improving the quality of care of patients who become unwell in care homes (with and without nursing).

Communicating the correct information about patients to the correct people is imperative and SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) communication provides a standardized tool to aid this. This elearning course is part of the wider SETS (SBAR Education through Technology and Simulation) course to embed SBAR communication in care homes. Part 2 is a half day simulation course conducted in care homes and part 3 is a series of podcasts to cement the learning.

Meet the team

  • Dr Iain Wilkinson – Clinical Lead
  • Dr Natalie Broomhead – Clinical Lead
  • Samantha Farr – Sussex Community Trust, Integrated Response Team
  • Angie Robinson – Sussex Community Trust, Integrated Response Team

How to access

Available to all

The SBAR Communication in Care Homes programme is freely available to access here.
Please note your progress and completion of sessions will not be recorded and you will not be able to generate a record of completion. If you require evidence of learning, please register and then log in to access this programme on the elfh Hub.

If you already have an account with elfh, then you can enrol on to the All Our Health programme by logging in to the elfh Hub, selecting My Account > Enrolment and selecting the programme. You can then access the programme immediately in the My elearning section.

Register >

To view the SBAR Communication in Care Homes programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.

View >

NHS healthcare staff in England

The SBAR Communication in Care Homes programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this elearning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.

Further details are available here.

Not an NHS organisation?

If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.

To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.

Registering large numbers of users

If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the SBAR Communication in Care Homes programme, please contact elfh directly.

Organisations wishing to use their own LMS

For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.

Care home or hospice staff

To register for the SBAR Communication in Care Homes programme, select the Register button. Select the option ‘I am a care home or hospice worker’ then enter your care home / hospice name or postcode and select it from the options available in the drop down list. Finally enter your care home / hospice registration code and select ‘Register’. You may need to see your employer to get this code.

If your employer does not have a code, then they need to contact the elfh Support Team. The support team can either give the employer the registration code or arrange a bulk upload of all staff.

Social care professionals

Access to elfh content is available to all social care professionals in England whose employers are registered with the Skills for Care National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC). Every employer providing NMDS-SC workforce information to Skills for Care has been given a user registration code for their staff. This code enables you to self-register for access to SBAR Communication in Care Homes. Please contact your employer for more details about the registration code. For information about registering your organisation with the NMDS-SC your employer should access www.nmds-sc-online.org.uk or contact the Skills for Care Support Service on 0845 8730129.

If you have a registration code, you can register by clicking here.

More information

Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.

elfh is a NHS England programme in partnership with the NHS and professional bodies