Developing a Scotland-wide, HECTOR course: Improving patient-centred care of older adults affected by major trauma in Scotland
Abstract
Introduction:
HECTOR is a 2 day SIM based course that originated in Birmingham, and is designed to train healthcare professionals to deliver patient centred care for older people who have sustained traumatic injuries. Our goal was to develop "HECTOR Scotland" (an adapted course to fit Scottish guidelines) to allow those across the major trauma networks in Scotland to access the course, and to grow a Scotland based multi-disciplinary faculty.
Method:
The first HECTOR Scotland was delivered in March 2023, with an initial faculty of six (5 doctors and 1 nurse). Since then, 7 further courses have been delivered. We use PDSA methodology to seek qualitative feedback from participants to keep content up to date for subsequent courses. Participants are selected to ensure an multi-disciplinary skill mix including doctors, nurses and Allied Health Professionals (AHPs). As faculty are identified from high performing participants, this ensures a supply of new interprofessional faculty for future courses.
Results:
108 participants have attended HECTOR Scotland between 2023-2025; 50% of course participants were Doctors, 11% were Trauma co-ordinators, 15% were Nurses, 2% were PAs, and 22% were AHPs. Participants came from across the 4 Scottish Major trauma regions: 31% from South East, 24% from West, 29% from North, 8% from East.
We have increased the faculty to 35 including 5 AHPs and 8 Nurses from across the 4 Trauma networks. Course evaluation is consistently positive.
Conclusions:
HECTOR Scotland is now being delivered sustainably at scale, reaching more healthcare professionals across the major trauma networks in Scotland, by delivering in locations where learning opportunities were not available before. A participant – turned- faculty model is proving to be effective.
As part of the next PDSA cycle, we are hoping to further expand the delivery of HECTOR to involve an even wider geographical area, including to Ninewells hospital and the Western Isles.