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University of Edinburgh launches critical care course on FutureLearn for NHS staff battling COVID-19

Monday 6 April 2020, UK: The University of Edinburgh’s MSc Critical Care team – in conjunction with the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh – has launched a free online training and education hub called ‘COVID-19 Critical Care: Understanding and Application’, available to join now on leading social learning platform, FutureLearn.com.

The University of Edinburgh continues to support the frontline fight against the coronavirus pandemic by making a selection of its course materials available to NHS staff through this hub. The initiative is aimed at equipping clinical staff or healthcare providers with the tools to combat the virus and save lives.

The free resource has been designed to support frontline healthcare providers across the world, some of whom may be treating critically ill patients for the first time. It is also available to clinicians who are caring for the critically ill after time away from the frontline, and provides access to professional knowledge and expertise covering routine critical care activities, as well as COVID-19 specific education. The course also provides practical tools for self-care and staff wellbeing.

Dr Graham Nimmo, Programme Director of MSc Critical Care, said: “Critical care focuses on the patient, their family, and the staff who look after them. As learners and teachers, it is our privilege to create a community of learning with the common goal of improving patient care and outcome whilst supporting staff. These are the principles upon which our MSc Critical Care programme is based. This resource is entirely open access and we hope that it will benefit staff in our NHS and beyond.”

Helen Fuller, Global Healthcare Lead at FutureLearn, said: “Healthcare professionals across the world are operating in unprecedented times, therefore it is crucial that they have access to the necessary information and support in order to provide the best care for their patients and for themselves. At FutureLearn we’re working at speed with our global network of expert partners, including the University of Edinburgh, to ensure that healthcare workers at the front line have the information they need to combat the pandemic.”

The ‘COVID-19 Critical Care: Understanding and Application’ course has been created in response to the COVID-19 emergency and does not correspond to the classic structure of a FutureLearn course. Learners will not receive a certificate upon completion, and do not have to follow the week by week approach. Instead, they will be able to select the materials that are most relevant to their work. 

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

About FutureLearn

Here at FutureLearn, our purpose is to transform access to education. We do that by partnering with over a quarter of the world’s top universities to support over 11 million learners across the globe to develop skills and achieve their personal and professional goals. We’re a leading social learning platform founded in December 2012 by The Open University and are now jointly owned by The Open University in the UK and The SEEK Group. We use design, technology and partnerships to create enjoyable, credible and flexible short online courses and microcredentials, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. In addition to top universities, we also partner with leading organisations such as Accenture, the British Council, CIPD, Raspberry Pi and Health Education England (HEE), as well as being involved in government-backed initiatives to address skills gaps such as The Institute of Coding and the National Centre for Computing Education.

 

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