VP MED Group, a leading Medtech company has taken a significant step towards enhancing education and support provided to cath lab teams across Scotland.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have increased our commitment to education with our fantastic cath lab teams across Scotland, helping them to address challenging issues such as high staff turnover and work-related pains. Through a combination of didactic content, our Foundations course, and hands on simulators like Mentice and guidewire sims, we have worked hard to give teams an opportunity to engage in education and to feel that they are valued.
Reflecting on this journey, we have witnessed the evolution of Scotland into its own healthcare education ecosystem, contributing significantly to positive outcomes for the teams based there.
Recognising the disparity in opportunity between Doctors and cath lab teams in expanding networks and sharing best practice our vision was to create a ‘safe space’ for group learning amongst the Scottish cath lab teams. We first piloted an initiative with one centre, bringing together 50 delegates for a weekend event and buoyed by the success and the positive feedback received we expanded Cath lab connections to a Scotland-wide meeting with representatives form all six PCI centres and at least one member of faculty from each.
The key to the success has lain in having motivated drivers within the faculty who are passionate about education, and we have positively encouraged the educational champions from the Cath lab to drive colleague engagement.
The recent event featured a carefully curated agenda, addressing fundamental educational needs that we have discerned over many years of educating teams. The format was a half day didactic session with short presentations and a strong focus on practical hands-on activities.
Scotland is extremely lucky to have Aadil Shaukat, Rong Bing, Peter Henriksen, David Carrick, Zaid Iskandar, Mohamed Elhanan, Andrew Stewart, Pete McCartney, John Irving, Avais Jabbar, Caroline Scally and Mr Haris a Cardiac Surgeon at the forefront of driving education and support.
Future plans for Cath lab connections include additional educational days in 2024 incorporating an Advanced course for cath lab teams, and a Registrars and Fellows programme featuring case-based scenario presentations linked with practical sessions. These forward looking initiatives aim to further enhance the education and training of healthcare professionals, and ultimately contribute to improved patient outcomes.