The joyous return of face to face education for NHMS
The educational team at NHMS were delighted to get on the road again after more than 2 years of providing virtual learning to healthcare professionals, with a jam-packed day of education held in the stunning grounds of Himley Hall in the West Midlands.
Fully funded by the Black Country and West Birmingham Training Hub, this event was a fantastic opportunity for advanced care practitioners, GPs, nurses and other allied health professionals to receive specialist menopause education at no cost to individuals.
Advanced Practice Clinical Educator Lead, Lisa Davies raised the need for menopause education in her locality:
“Whilst working as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in GP practice, we were seeing an increase in ladies requesting either HRT or help with strategies to manage their menopause. As many healthcare professionals have had either no or little training, I completed the Fourteen Fish ‘Confidence in the Menopause’ online modules. Through this my understanding improved but as ACP Lead for the Black Country and West Birmingham, I wanted to both promote and provide education for other Advanced Practitioners so they would be confident and competent in prescribing and managing the perimenopause and menopause. I feel that this group of health professionals are well-placed to deliver good quality care to women – which is desperately in need – and it seemed fitting that Newson Health Menopause Society would and did provide us with the best education available.”
On the day, expectations were high, as clinically experienced attendees were looking to further expand their knowledge and skills to improve the care offered to their patients in perimenopause and menopause and increase their confidence in prescribing appropriate hormonal treatments.
Dr Louise Newson began with an overview of the perimenopause and menopause and why it matters, and she provided a detailed outline of the health risks associated with living with low hormones.
Louise then handed over the reins to Dr Sarah Ball to deliver the full programme of topics around HRT prescribing. Sarah deftly gave a comprehensive rundown of estrogen, progesterone, testosterone and vaginal hormone prescribing. And the following sessions were crafted around practical case studies that covered clot risk, breast cancer, migraine, osteoporosis, using higher than licensed doses, cardiovascular considerations, contraception, cognitive health and shared decision making.
The event was a wonderful opportunity to support NHS staff to give the best possible care to the perimenopausal and menopausal people they see every day. The feedback spoke for itself: 100% of respondents would recommend the course and 100% gave the course content and speakers a whopping full marks!
Attendees had this to say:
“I feel much more confident in assessing, diagnosing and commencing HRT”
“It will change all of my day-to-day assessments including of menopausal symptoms and GSM”
“This will now enable me to provide more information to the many women who have attended surgery with menopausal symptoms & feel they have someone they can talk to and help with their symptoms”
“Very informative, used layman’s terms, concise, straight to the point. Lovely booklet of handouts.”
“Brilliant topic, excellently executed, very informative, great location, nice to get face to face learning again”
If you would like to arrange NHMS menopause education for your NHS network or healthcare organisation, please email education@nhmenopausesociety.org