Sense Scotland and Women and Children's Directorate, NHS Greater Glasgow.

Developed to bridge the gap between health and social care, these training packs are designed to provide social care support staff with the underpinning knowledge and practical skills they need to support a person with a specific health care need. Each of the packs can be used as stand-along training, or together as a comprehensive training course. 

General Learning Outcomes
• know what nutrients are essential for healthy living
• understand how food is digested in the body
• describe what enteral feeding is and give the reasons why a person might need to
be fed through a gastrostomy tube
• know how a gastrostomy tube is inserted and be able to describe the different
types of tube
• understand how to support a person with a gastrostomy tube safely
• identify what can go wrong and know what actions to take.

Specific Learning Outcomes Include
• describe the reason for the person having a gastrostomy
• identify and describe the different types of tube available for gastrostomy feeding
and the correct way of using the specific tube used by the individual
• discuss the potential hazards associated with gastrostomy feeding and identify
appropriate responses to these situations
• select and prepare appropriate equipment required to carry out a bolus
gastrostomy tube feed
• select and prepare appropriate equipment required to carry out a gastrostomy
tube feed via a pump

This pack provides basic knowledge and understanding of a specific health care need. This will enable staff to use the knowledge to gain an understanding of the needs of individual service users, and to gain the confidence and competence to support the individual's health care, respond in an emergency situation and identify when and how to seek medical assistance. Each pack also provides guidance to teach staff to record and report health care information in accordance with legal, registration and organisational requirements.

Vital information for: staff with a supervisory responsibility for those providing direct care, as well as patient carers and non-nursing carers such as support workers; and organisations providings support to children and adults living in the community, who require ongoing support to meet their health care needs.