Acute Sickle Care

This learning tool was developed in response to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Report *No One’s Listening*, which followed an inquiry into the avoidable deaths and failures of care for sickle cell patients in secondary care. The report laid out recommendations to improve care, including the development of an e-learning module based on national standards of care in partnership with clinical experts.

The programme focuses on improving clinical knowledge of Sickle Cell Disorder (SCD) to enable healthcare colleagues to provide excellent care to a patient group with complex needs. The course starts with a simple introduction to SCD to ensure the learner starts with good basic understanding of SCD as a genetically inherited blood condition. The course progresses into teaching about the most frequent complication that patients with SCD encounter, acute pain, it also touches on other complications such as Acute Chest Syndrome. This course teaches how to treat these symptoms appropriately and effectively to ensure the best patient outcomes and experience. 

In addition to clinical knowledge, the programme addresses the role of racism and health-related stigma in patient care, teaching participants how to recognise and prevent such behaviours.

Knowledge checks are integrated throughout the course to test comprehension.

Objectives

• Raisning awareness of sickle cell disease (SCD) pain as a medical emergency
• Raising awareness of the NICE guidance on pain management for individuals with SCD presenting with an acute painful episode, including the requirement to administer adequate pain relief within 30 minutes of presentation
• Raising awareness that sickle cell disease patients need close monitoring and may deteriorate suddenly
• Understanding the impact of health-related stigma on the care SCD patients receive, and being able to recognise and prevent these behaviours
• How to treat sickle patients with empathy and listen to them
• Raising awareness of how sickle patients manager their pain
• How it feels to be a patient in sickle crisis

Audience 

• Clinical members of staff who look after individuals with sickle cell disorders.

Collaborations

• The King’s Health Partner’s module was co-produced by adult and paediatric patients, carers, and staff across KCH and GSTT.