Colleen achieves a first for First Steps

Published: 23 April 2013

A health care assistant from Lincolnshire has become the first in the UK to be formally recognised for completing First Steps, the Royal College of Nursing’s acclaimed induction training programme for HCAs.

Colleen Norris, who works in the stroke unit at Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital, received her certificate of completion after working her way through every section of the online learning resource and taking a concluding assessment quiz.

The quiz is a new feature of the programme, available free to all health care workers, which enables participants to test their learning and, if successful, download a certificate to mark their formal ‘graduation’ from the programme.

Colleen, an RCN member, received her certificate from Eiri Jones, Director of Nursing for United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Pilgrim Hospital.

Designed to aid the delivery of safe, high-quality patient care, First Steps offers HCAs induction training they can do at their own pace either independently or to supplement learning provided by their employer. In addition to the quiz, the upgraded resource has also been made easier to access via mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Colleen said: "I think First Steps is brilliant. It’s very easy to understand and uses plain language, not jargon.

"As an NVQ Level 2, some of the learning for me has served as a kind of memory jogger, which means you don’t become complacent.

"If you’re a newly-appointed support worker and you haven’t done NVQ Level 2 or you don’t have a nursing background, I’d say it would be a big help in your induction.

"The quiz at the end was very useful. The questions are varied; some are straightforward but others make you stop and think."

Colleen was supported to complete the programme by Amanda Eliff, an RCN Learning Representative at Pilgrim Hospital.

Amanda said: "Colleen is a shining example of how even an experienced health care assistant can benefit from completing First Steps, and she is a deserving recipient of the first certificate of completion."