The AAMI Foundation has announced that it is laying groundwork for a major new initiative aimed at improving training of clinical staff on use of complex medical devices. The organization has reportedly started reaching out to a number of industry partners to assess their level of support for the potential 2-year initiative, which would follow the format of the Foundation’s previous patient safety campaigns.

The current effort arose from the AAMI Foundation’s first Industry Council meeting last January, in which participants discussed the challenges associated with staying up to date on constantly evolving technology. At the time, there was consensus that along with education and training, a solution would require consensus among various stakeholders, including nurses, device manufacturers, patient safety advocates, hospital administrators, professional organizations, regulators, among others.

“Based on the outcomes of our first Industry Council event, we believe that the AAMI Foundation is in the unique position to act as a neutral convener to move this effort forward,” said Marilyn Neder Flack, senior vice president of patient safety initiatives and executive director of the AAMI Foundation. “To do this, we would establish a coalition that would focus on creating a national vision and strategy for preparing clinicians—beginning with nurses—to work with complex technologies.”

According to a report on the AAMI website, the coalition’s goals would include:

  • Develop recommendations and/or guidelines for ways to assess competency in the use of complex technology.
  • Build a repository of best practices for educating and assessing competency of caregivers who use healthcare technology.
  • Create recommendations and/or guidelines to assist in the purchase of complex healthcare technology.
  • Build a business case for allocating financial resources to this initiative and training.
  • Identify current models for device technology education.
  • Develop guidelines and/or standards pertaining to the training materials included with medical devices.
  • Standardize training across all care settings, units, devices, brands, and users.

Launch of the initiative appears to depend heavily on financial support to bring about sustained change. For more information, visit the AAMI website.