Virtual College presented Dr. Jessica Patel, the 300,000^th learner, with an iPad Air 2 and a cheque for £300, which is being donated to her nominated charity, "Guide Dogs".

Dr Patel commented, "Patient safety is obviously of fundamental importance, but in a busy medical environment, it is difficult to undertake vital training by traditional classroom methods.

"The flexibility of Virtual College's online learning is ideally suited to our 24/7 working environment to ensure large numbers of staff engage with the training."   

The original need for these learning resources arose in 2010, when NHS Diabetes research showed significant problems in the treatment and care of diabetes sufferers in hospitals.

This included over thirty per cent of inpatients who had experienced an error in medication and nearly 3,900 incidents of incorrect dosage involving insulin. A series of high-profile cases, including three deaths, were also highlighted.

The Safe Use of Insulin eLearning course was developed rapidly and tested by Virtual College in partnership with NHS Diabetes (now NHS England). A bespoke learning-management system was created in order to register learners and allow them instant access to the course.

Judith Clarkson, Divisional Director at Virtual College, commented, "The number of learners was expected to be around 40,000 spread across a number of different hospital trusts. In less than twelve months, the number of learners had already exceeded 50,000."

Building on the success of this service and the recognition that online learning could provide a successful solution for other areas of patient safety training, Virtual College developed the comprehensive National Patient Safety Suite (NPSS) in consultation with subject-matter experts.

"We have developed the courses with clinical experts and continue to add new topics to meet the consistently high level of demand for patient safety training," said Judith. "It is rewarding to know that these resources are helping 300,000 learners to minimise avoidable harm."

Over 100 community, acute, and private healthcare organisations, as well as mental-health trusts, CCGs, and universities are already subscribed to the suite. Subscription provides twelve months of unlimited training access for staff across all sixteen courses, and as the subscription fees are reinvested, additional courses on patient-safety topics will continue to be added to the suite.