Future of the Skills Training Weblog

Skills training is on the agenda of many schools of health professionals (especially for doctors, nurses, midwives), all over the world. Exchange of materials, ideas and experiences is very much needed. A Taskforce, creating a format for such an exchange, chairing the problems and possible solutions for setting up skills training programmes/skills labs could be a big help. During the Network: TUFH Conference in Kampala (September 2007) the Maastricht skills lab, where this new training method was started in the seventies, was asked to set up a weblog/website, to facilitate this exchange of information.

In this weblog we offer the opportunity to:
* Exchange experiences and new developments (News/innovations)
* Ask for- and offer help with all kinds of problems and questions (Questions/answers)

Moreover we try to underpin skills training by offering information and literature about the following topics:

* Why systematic skills training is needed (why);
* How skills training developed from a crazy idea into a well accepted and underpinned skills lab method (history);
* The main starting points and steps of this method (Skills Lab Method); and
* More detailed information about:
- Training of communication skills
- Training of medical technical/nursing skills
- Use of simulated patients
- Assessment

These topics will be briefly introduced. For those of you who are interested in more in-depth information a chapter about this topic, including relevant references and links, will be available soon. For those of you who are interested in the “full story” of the Skills Lab Method, the whole Pdf file can be downloaded. On top of that information will be made accessible on written, well illustrated training materials and others.

This weblog will be built up step by step. We intend to finalise the first draft of all chapters before the next Network meeting in Columbia (September 2008), but we can’t guarantee we will succeed in it.

To do so we need your support, comments and input!
Each year another participant of the Task Force “Skills Training” will be responsible for keeping the weblog up to date.