About the IV Therapy Passport programme

The IV Therapy Passport programme of elearning has been developed to provide and develop the underpinning knowledge, required by healthcare professionals to administer intravenous medication (IV), as part of the IV Therapy Passport pathway.

Through collaborative working with stakeholders from organisations across London, one common approach to intravenous medication administration training and assessment has been agreed and developed by CapitalNurse – this is the IV Therapy Passport.

The pathway leads health care professionals (HCP) to gain an IV Therapy Passport which enables that person to transfer, with their IV skills, between organisations in London without the need to retrain.

Although designed and developed in London, the pathway is of relevance nationally.

The key objectives of the passport include:

• Reduction in variation in training and assessment. Practitioners are trained and assessed against the same standard in the delivery of IV Therapy
• Transferability – a passport that is accepted as evidence of skills to practice
• Access for patients to skilled practitioners without delay
• Reduction of duplication of effort and resource utilisation, bringing better staff experience.

Who is it aimed at

The passport, and its associated elearning and eAssessment, is designed for registered and student health care professionals caring for infants, children, young people and adults, whose role requires the administration of intravenous medication for patients. Healthcare professionals can access the pathway and passport at a range of points in their career, these may be as a/an:

• pre-registration student such as a student nurse or midwife
• internationally recruited healthcare professional
• registrant after registration with a professional body
• existing member of the workforce to upskill.

The IV Therapy Passport pathway

The pathway is comprised of three steps as illustrated below:

Programme Content

The programme of elearning consists of seven knowledge sessions and seven corresponding eAssessments designed as a full curriculum. They are ‘bite-sized’ interactive learning sessions that work well on a variety of mobile and static devices. The sessions are:

• IV Medication Administration – a complex process
• The IV Route
• Vascular Access Devices
• Risks and Complications of IV Therapy
• Fluids and Electrolytes in IV Therapy
• Preparation and Administration of IV Medication
• Drug Calculations in IV Therapy

Each session takes approximately 30 minutes to complete and the eAssessment approximately 20 minutes, with the exception of the drug calculations eAssessment which may take longer.

All sessions must be completed and the eAssessments passed before learners can begin their supervised practice learning and assessment.

On completion of the elearning and corresponding eAssessments, learners are expected to provide evidence of completion, in the form of a downloadable certificate or by demonstrating their elfh learning record, to their manager, educator or supervising university lecturer within their organisation.

Completion of step 1 and 2 will enable the healthcare professional to progress through the pathway to supervised practice learning and assessment using the Step 3 IV Therapy Practice Learning and Assessment component and ultimately to achieve the IV Therapy Passport.

For full information on the IV Therapy Passport and each step of the pathway, please visit the IV Therapy Passport.

This elearning resource is endorsed by the Royal College of Nursing.

More information

Development of the IV Therapy Passport

CapitalNurse’s shared vision to ‘get nursing right for London; ensuring that London has the right number of nurses, with the right skills in the right place, working to deliver excellent nursing wherever it is needed by the people of London’ was the catalyst for the work alongside stakeholder feedback on the challenges around staff transferring with IV skills and the frequent requirement for retraining.

The project, which began in 2018, was ambitious in engaging widely with London’s healthcare providers (the NHS, charitable and independent sector) and higher education institutions (HEIs), alongside CapitalMidwife, to ensure broad stakeholder representation and to engage experts in the field. With such broad engagement, the project has been able to consider and meet the needs of all adult and children’s nurses and midwives in all healthcare settings.

From this engagement, an IV Therapy pathway was shaped from the evaluation of stakeholders’ requirements and recommendations. Four workstreams were established, enabling stakeholders, all of whom were involved in IV Therapy training and education in their organisation, to contribute to components of the pathway where they had expertise.

From these workstreams, authors, editors and reviewers were identified. These subject matter experts have shaped and created the programme of elearning, the practice learning and assessment document and the entire pathway.

Two phases of testing were implemented to test both the elearning content and functionality and the practice learning and assessment component with nurses and midwives in hospital and community settings across London.

Simultaneously, a steering group and senior leadership sponsors for the project were identified to promote and to provide governance for the work.

With special thanks to:

• Michelle Johnson, Executive Project Sponsor and Chair of IV Project Steering Group, Chief Nurse, The Whittington Hospital
• Sarah Hayes, Project Sponsor and Assistant Chief Nurse at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust
• Sarah Langfield, Project Sponsor and Assistant Chief Nurse at Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust

How to access

In order to access the IV Therapy Passport programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.

Register >

To view the IV Therapy Passport 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 >

Access for social care organisations

If you work in social care, register for an account here https://support.e-lfh.org.uk/get-started/registration/  Every employer who is registered with the National Minimum Data Set for Social Care has been given a code which allows their staff to access elfh’s content. You may need to see your employer to get this code.

Not an NHS organisation or Student?

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 IV Therapy Passport 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.

More information

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