The Scottish Government

NHS ORKNEY

Porter, Lewis Berston, has been working for NHS Orkney for seven years, and although his day-to-day job doesn't involve using a computer, he has opted to undertake the European Computer Driving Licence.

Lewis started working in the laundry department at the Balfour Hospital in Orkney and, after a few years, he was promoted to hospital van driver and porter. He is responsible for a variety of jobs, from collecting drug orders from the local pharmacy to delivering medical equipment to people in the community.

Although Lewis had a general knowledge of computing, he wanted to improve his IT skills. However, he presumed the ECDL course was only available to those using a computer as part of their job.

Lewis heard about the course through the IT training and development department within NHS Orkney and decided to give it a go and gain an internationally recognised qualification at the same time.

He said: "For some reason, I got it into my head that the course was only available to people who already had an IT qualification or used computers in their jobs within the hospital.

"However, staff from a wide range of departments, including catering, office and domestic employees, are now working their way through the modules and there seems to have been a lot more interest in the course recently."

After a brief induction at the hospital's IT training department, Lewis worked on his course for 30 minutes at the end of his shift and did the majority of the modules on his PC at home. He has completed modules in Word, Excel, files and folders, the Internet and e-mail, and has just started working on databases.

He said: "I spent just a few hours a week at home on the course and in every module I've leaned something new. I've tried to encourage other people working in the hospital to take it up as it has been a positive experience for me. I thought I had a good grounding in IT, but I've learned so much more than I expected.

"I'm really enjoying it. It's easy to follow and I'm now on to my fifth module. I'm making much quicker progress than I expected. It has given me the confidence to consider doing another training course in the future, and who knows, I may even consider a career change."

Jane Gibson, Public Health Nurse (Health Visitor)

As a community health visitor working with NHS Ayrshire & Arran, Jane Gibson's time is extremely precious. In just one day she can go from visiting young families in the community to giving a presentation to local groups on the importance of healthy living.

Jane (53) has been a health visitor for 25 years, but advances in modern technology have seen many elements of her daily job change dramatically in recent years.

Jane said: "I thought I knew quite a bit about working on computers as we have one at home that my children use for their university work. But when I actually started working towards the European Computer Driving Licence, I realised I had a long way to go.

"I was familiar with e-mail already and was quite competent using it, but word processing was a different matter - there was just so much to learn. I knew I had to get involved in learning as I couldn't carry on doing my job being frightened of a PC. So much information is now stored on computer, including thousands of patient records within the practice and e-mail is now the main form of communication within the Trust."

Jane found out about ECDL from her intranet at work and decided to sign-up for the course. The online learning material took her through the modules step by step and she averaged 90 per cent in the tests at the end of each module. It took Jane 18 months to complete and she gained passes in word processing, databases and spreadsheets.

Jane said: "The ECDL course has given me the confidence I needed to use the computer in all aspects of my work, from doing presentations to keeping a database of appointments. I even do my household budget on a spreadsheet now, which makes life so much simpler.

"The support network on the course was extremely helpful as there was back-up whenever I needed it. I did the course at home and registered with an online tutor at the beginning of each module. My tutor was able to keep in touch with me via email and helped me out whenever I got stuck.

"I would recommend the ECDL course to anyone wishing to learn about computers. I knew how to switch the computer on, but I had no idea how to find something if it disappeared off my screen. The tutors at the learning centre were great. They were really approachable and always managed to help me out of my mess and the great thing was being able to fit the course work around my job."

Jenny Baird, Midwife

LOTHIAN UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL TRUST

Jenny Baird is one of around 25 midwives in NHS Lothian to embark on an online learning pilot with learndirect scotland to gain the European Computer Driving Licence.

NHS Lothian is aiming to train staff so that the majority of employees have a reasonably high standard of IT skills and are competent using a PC as part of their job. There are now 634 staff enrolled on the ECDL and, by the end of February 2004, 10 had completed the certificate and 227 had passed at least one module.

Jenny has been a midwife for 23 years, but for the last two years she has been on secondment to the Information Services (IS) department of the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh as a business analyst.

Until two years ago Jenny had barely used a PC. However, in her new post within IS she has been involved in developing an electronic patient record for the midwifery department at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Jenny said: "To begin with I really lacked knowledge and confidence when using a computer, but the ECDL was a great course for a complete novice like me. The software system was very easy to use and the content encouraged you to go on to the next level, leading you through the modules.

"We learned everything from saving documents to creating patient records and analysing results. Jobs within the health service have changed a lot since I started. The majority of information such as patient records and lab results are all accessed via computers now, therefore it is important that this information is available quickly and that staff are able to interpret them accurately."

Jenny took 13 months to complete the ECDL course. She said: "The course is ideal for my profession because everyone within the NHS has different clinical commitments. Online learning enabled me to access the learning material when it suited me and I was able to work through the modules at my own pace.

"I really enjoyed the course. Now that I'm working in Information Services, a range of staff come to me for specialist IT advice and I often find myself recommending the ECDL course to them."