Medirest: Changing the health and safety DNA

Medirest is the UK's leading healthcare support service brands, working in more than 50 acute hospitals and medical treatment centres.

The Challenge

Manual handling incidents are the highest recorded Health and Safety occurrences in the business and are on the increase. Medirest needed to identify a training solution that would help their employees fully understand the principles and practices of correct lifting.

As the company’s external training provider, Astutis were approached to offer advice regarding the best training solutions for their teams. A bespoke presentation tailored to support the organisation's services was required and Astutis discussed the BTEC level 3 Manual Handling Trainers course. ­With some additions, this would provide a solution that met the client's criteria, and is also endorsed by RoSPA.

Training Solution

The course allows the learner to put theory into practice by applying efficient movement principles to routine loads, non-routine loads, pushing, pulling and team handling. Learners are expected to correct their shortfalls relating to their practice.

In addition to the practical element, learners are taught how to conduct a pre-transfer assessment or dynamic risk assessment. The learner will have adequate time to practice manual handling and gain experience in training others.

Implementing this system of training allows an individual trainee to be instructed using equipment similar to their job and instruction in the following services:

• Catering
• Domestic
• Portering
• Stores and logistics
• Car park tasks.

Once trained, the person will be provided with the following two foundation knowledge units, which have been designed to promote adult learning by including practical work, demonstrations, PowerPoint presentations, discussions and case studies:

1. Health and Safety Legislation
2. Musculoskeletal Awareness of the Spine.

On completion of the course all trainers receive the generic bespoke presentation and notes to accompany the training they will conduct in their own work environment.

The Medirest story

At present, manual handling training is captured online through the online learning process, which takes individual employees through a programme of visual screen shots and verbal instructions.

To make this bespoke to the Healthcare business, a photo shoot was arranged, capturing the specific tasks undertaken, so that examples of actual everyday working situations can be featured during future training.

Although this method is legally acceptable, practical instruction for the individual in a classroom environment, using equipment and working day scenarios will always be favourable.

10 Medirest Healthcare managers have now completed the ‘Train the Trainer’ course. 

Benefits

This programme aims to:

• Develop effective teaching skills in manual handling
• Enable a learner to teach induction and mandatory training that is bespoke to their organisation, based on current best practice
• Provide a practical, hands-on training course, giving confidence to the individual being trained to deliver the one to one instruction
• Reduce the number of reported occurrences.

The theoretical aspect of this programme is classroom based and will equip the learner with the knowledge and skills to undertake their assessments in the workplace.

This will provide sound learning and should reduce the number of manual handling incidents.