Differences between manual handling and patient management: training courses for trainers

Increasingly, employers send staff members on trainers' training courses that focus on manual handling or patient management methods. These courses are growing in popularity as they allow companies to have their own high-quality instructors after a few days of training, which in turn can train others, saving the need to bring in an expensive external instructor each year more or less.

But different businesses require different trainings and instructors. In industries where people deal with patients, such as those involved in health care or social care, some employers are sending staff to manually operate the training of trainers courses. Many believe that this is adequate training for patient management. This is not the case. For many reasons, both legal and practical, when it comes to patient management, it is important that potential trainers enroll in an instructor training course.

The reasons for doing this are very important:

Legislation

Believe it or not, a person is more important than an inanimate object. People have legislation like the Human Rights Law that protects them from being treated in a certain way and many levels of jurisprudence to turn to. Only in a first-class patient delivery instructor training course will the participant be taught about this and warned of the consequences of ignoring their duty of care. Drop a box and something may break. Hold a patient incorrectly and the repercussions are much more severe.

Technique and equipment

Moving a heavy box is different from moving a person. For starters, a patient could be sitting in a chair, lying on a bed, or sitting in a bathroom. Different equipment is also regularly used to help move the patient. Knowing the correct way and how to effectively use the relevant equipment is an important aspect of instructor-led training courses for patients; this will not be taught in a manual driving course.

Risk assessments

Performing a risk assessment on a person is very different from that of a box or heavy object. All people weigh different amounts, can be small or tall, and can communicate. Often the work environment differs greatly from those involved in manual handling. Variables in patient management can be extreme. Understanding and evaluating these variables is always an important aspect of training patient management instructors.

Due to these factors, training for patient management instructors generally lasts around 4 days, compared to manual management training that can be completed in as little as 2 days. While some of the same ground will be covered in both, if you're involved in patient management, you should realize that only a training course for patient management instructors will cut you down in the long run. Both courses are very valuable, but only choose the course that is relevant to the work you do. https://www.abertaytraining.co.uk/