New training to support visual impairment patients

Date: 28 September 2022

Visual impairement training   comp

Patients at The Walton Centre with a visual impairment will now be able to receive extra support after a new training package was put in place. Collette Crompton, Project Support for Skull Base and Neuro-Oncology, and Emma Wilby, Advanced Nurse Practitioner in Skull Base and Neuro-Oncology, devised the project after identifying a lack of information for both staff and patients.

There are approximately 300 patients a year at The Walton Centre with some level of visual impairment, and the new charity-funded training and materials will help staff ensure they can offer the very best support to them as they go through their treatment at the hospital.

Staff from Bradbury Fields, Liverpool and Knowsley's main provider of services for blind and partially sighted people, came to The Walton Centre to train 16 members of staff on both the theoretical and practical approach to approaching and guiding people with a visual impairment, the different equipment available and practical support available.

Feedback from the course was very positive, with one participant saying it was very effective and gave them a much clearer understanding of these patients are going through, and how to help them.

All 16 staff members now wear a pin badge to identify them as trained in visual impairment support, and it is hoped to run further sessions later in the year to train more staff.

  • Summary:

    Patients at The Walton Centre with a visual impairment will now be able to receive extra support after a new training package was put in place.