Summary
The RCGP has launched a new eLearning course to help practices improve the healthcare of their veteran patients.
A new online course aimed at helping general practice teams understand the needs of veterans is now available.
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Veterans’ Health eLearning course consists of two modules, a screencast and a podcast.
It is free to access for any healthcare professional with an RCGP account. You can create a free account via the RCGP website, which will grant you limited access to products and services. On the membership page, scroll down to ‘Non-membership access’ and register your details.
There are 2.03 million veterans in England, Wales and Scotland combined and many have medical needs, which are sometimes different to those of the general population.
Veterans may be reluctant to seek help or talk about their problems, which means they are not aware of or do not always access care, support and treatments available. Veterans may also think that ‘civilians’ do not understand military culture.
The course helps to bridge the gap between veterans and primary care, and highlights the resources that are available, including the RCGP Veteran Friendly GP Practice Accreditation Programme.
As part of the course, which takes around 90 minutes to complete, is a screencast that describes the benefits of joining the accreditation programme.
The podcast discusses what makes veterans different to other patients. Dr Emily Brookes talks a military veteran, Jon Lynn, about how a veteran patient may present differently in their health-seeking behaviours and how identifying if a patient is a veteran can enable healthcare professionals to provide good healthcare to this patient group.
The majority of GP practices in Greater Manchester are veteran friendly accredited, with at least one practice in every Primary Care Network (PCN) signed up to the RCGP programme.
However, there are still just over 130 practices yet to gain accreditation. The national target is to have 100 per cent of practices accredited by March.
For more information on how to become a veteran friendly practice or support with achieving accreditation, please contact james.bowman7@nhs.net
