NICE ME/CFS draft guideline: training for health & social care professionals

The draft NICE guideline is open for consultation until December 22nd 2020.

Contact the helpline or use the contact form on this website with your comments for inclusion in the WAMES response.

You can read the draft guideline here

Read excerpts from the guideline here on our blog. Today we highlight the recommendations that health and social care services should provide up to date training by experts:

1.15 Training for health and social care professionals (p40)

1.15.1 Health and care providers should provide access to training that reflects current knowledge in ME/CFS (including understanding what ME/CFS is, diagnosis and management) for all health and social care staff who deliver care to people with ME/CFS.

1.15.2 Ensure that training programmes on ME/CFS:

• provide evidence-based content and training methods (developed and supported by specialist services with input from people with ME/CFS)
• are run by trainers with relevant skills, knowledge and experience
• include monitoring, using relevant competency frameworks or assessment for the area of training
• represent the experiences of people with ME/CFS, using video and other resources.

1.15.3 Health and social care professionals who provide care for people with ME/CFS should undertake training that reflects current knowledge and maintain continuous professional development in ME/CFS relevant to their role so that they provide care in line with this guideline.

Why the committee made the recommendations (p70)

A strong theme in the evidence was the lack of knowledge, understanding and up-to date training that health and social care professionals have about ME/CFS. This was reflected in the committee’s experience so they recommended that all health and social staff who deliver care to people with ME/CFS should be trained so they are able to provide the care in this guideline. The evidence showed that training programmes in ME/CFS are often out of date, so the committee made a recommendation highlighting what a training programme should look like.

How the recommendations might affect practice

Training and education in ME/CFS are not widespread and this will be a change in practice, so there will be a resource impact from the cost of providing this training. Improving knowledge and awareness about ME/CFS will support identifying ME/CFS earlier, which should improve people’s care and lead to better outcomes.