CVD Risk Communication – Time to get it right

Improving CVD risk is critical to improving CVD outcomes and reducing CVD-related health inequalities.

This new CVD Risk training is an exciting collaboration between the University of Staffordshire, Heart UK and Smart Health Solutions.

Understanding and communicating CVD risk and CVD risk scores effectively to patients and the public is pivotal to optimising the impact of CVD prevention initiatives at system and place level.

  • It forms an essential element of the NHS Health Check Programme, but also underpins many broader clinical encounters where CVD risk factors are being considered, whether through annual reviews for those with elevated blood pressure, cholesterol, AF or established CVD
  • It has wider implications for health checks in communities or workplaces or any number of situations where healthcare professionals have opportunities to raise awareness of CVD risk factors outside of the clinical setting
  • It is recognised that within NHS Health Checks, there are significant opportunities for the quality and effectiveness of risk communication to be improved, as set out in the 2021 CVD communication in NHS Health Checks (RICO study)
  • The 2024 Darzi Report tells us that prevention, early detection and re-engaging with staff are more essential than ever in these troubling times for the NHS. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, premature cardiovascular disease mortality has increased, and overall life expectancy has decreased as the health of the nation has deteriorated.   

Whilst some areas have risk communication embedded within wider NHSHC training and others have supplementary ‘risk communication masterclasses’, this is not universal – for many, there is no local NHSHC training and little broader CVD risk communication available to other healthcare professionals.

28th November 2024

2pm – 3.30pm

We will be holding a free online event to showcase what we already know about communicating CVD risk, the current challenges, and how we can work together to improve the communication of CVD risk to meet the NHS Long Term Workforce plan that was developed in 2023.

The event will include the following:

Session One

What we already know about CVD risk communication and how it is being delivered currently

Session Two

What are the practical challenges and potential solutions for improving CVD risk communication

Session Three

Consider how we can evaluate the training to ensure your NHS workforce are competent communicators of CVD risk.

This event will give you the opportunity to share your thoughts, experiences, ideas, and concerns, which will help to shape our future CVD risk communication training. It will also take us closer to meeting the NHS Long Term Workforce plan. 

Those who attend the event and are interested in attending one of our training pilot sessions in early 2025 will also receive a 10% discount on the new CVD Risk training.

Strategic relevance – policy context:

  • The Labour Health Mission ‘Build an NHS fit for the future’ highlights the need for a ‘prevention first’ revolution, with a specific commitment to reduce deaths from heart disease & stroke by a quarter within 10 years.

  • The need for a CVD-prevention competent frontline NHS workforce to achieve this is set out in the 2023 NHS Long Term Workforce Plan has a strong focus on prevention, with a particular focus on CVD, with specific commitments for NHSE to develop a plan with system partners to support the workforce with delivering interventions that detect and optimally manage major conditions such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). The plan also highlights the need for ICBs, as part of their responsibilities to improve population health, to work with their local authority public health teams and partners to train and upskill their local primary care workforce so they have the competencies to improve CVD outcomes. This includes rolling out the Behaviour Change Development Framework and e-learning modules to frontline staff, Making Every Contact Count (MECC) and All Our Health, and promoting the health inequalities that e-learning offers.

  • Commitments in the NHS Long Term Workforce plan align with and can support the delivery of the CVD prevention commitments in the NHSE 2024/25 priorities & planning guidance, increasing numbers managed to target hypertension and elevated cholesterol. The guidance also required that action improves outcomes for Core20PLU5 populations and includes plans for continuing to provide a suite of lifestyle programmes and behavioural interventions to address inequalities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention, smoking and responsible alcohol consumption; diabetes prevention, weight management; and diabetes remission, with improved participation rates in the most deprived quintiles of the population.

  • Digital NHS Health Checks aim to increase the programme’s reach. To optimise impact, those who have contact as part of clinical or lifestyle service follow-up need to be competent and confident in helping patients fully understand their CVD risk and use this to motivate them to make changes to reduce risk. Even if digital NHSHC creates capacity in the system for enhanced approaches to engaging with those currently under-served by the programme, similar skills will be required, particularly given that there may be lower health literacy in these groups, making effective risk communication skills all the more important.

Speakers

Michaela Nuttall, Founder and Director of Smart Health Solutions

Michaela Nuttall RGN MSc

Cardiovascular Nurse

Christopher Gidlow

Professor of Health Services Delivery

at Keele University

Dr Victoria Riley

Research Fellow

Health, Education, Policing and Sciences