Improving training for volunteers

Quality Improvement Poster Download

Background & Problems

It is important that our volunteers have access to appropriate core training to ensure they are both component and safe whilst undertaking their voluntary duties at our hospitals. Historically the compliance of core training for volunteers has been low. Three main drivers for this have been poor quality of data, lack of motivation and training platforms.

Aim

To increase the compliance of volunteers’ core training to 75% by January 2019.

Method

Having established there were three primary drivers:

• Quality of data
• Volunteers’ motivation
• Training platforms

We worked closely with the members from our Training Records team and set up regular meetings with the Learning & Development team who are responsible for delivering regulated Trust training to all members of staff including volunteers. Volunteers were surveyed to find out their views on all aspects of training and what they might like to see differently in the future.

Three PDSA cycles were used to test our changes:

• Our first action was to split our report into two; “red shirt” volunteers – our responsibility for this staff group and chaplaincy volunteers – outside of our remit and management. We then manually scrutinised the initial report. This showed some inaccurate data regarding volunteers who had left. Ongoing monthly analysis was undertaken until all issues had been identified and rectified with the support from Training Records.
• We then undertook a survey involving 10% of volunteers asking them to give their views on the length of the training package, content, frequency of training sessions and variety of training platforms available to them.
• Results from the survey indicated a clear appetite for a more volunteer specific core training package that needs to be IPad friendly and also retain the option to attend face to face sessions.

Our primary measure is the monthly Training Report which has been used consistently throughout this project to keep track of changes.

Results

The following were areas for consideration identified through our project:

• Always check our data and work with the relevant teams to fix any underlying issues.
• Proactively manage compliance and work with L&D team to establish an automated reminder system for volunteers without nhs.net email addresses
• Continue to provide options for volunteers – whilst E-learning is a trust preferred method for annual training updates it does not suit all members from this cohort.
• Continue to ask volunteers for their feedback and review content of their training on an annual basis to ensure it remains relevant as well as meeting trust and national standards.

Implications

All volunteers benefit from being up to date and reminded of their role and responsibilities. Topics covered in mandatory training are designed to keep staff, volunteers and patients safe whilst we care for patients in our hospitals. If volunteers are compliant in this core training this will make them better equipped to deal with a variety of scenarios they could find themselves involved in. Having a volunteer workforce who can carry out their duties in a safe, knowledgeable, competent and confident way will help to ensure that our patient receive a better experience and also compliment the work that payed staff do.