Face to face · In-house only
Clinical Skills: PEG, Catheter Care & Syringe Driver Checks
Safe clinical support starts with clear competence and clear role boundaries.
About the course
Learning that makes
a practical difference.
As people's healthcare needs become more complex, care-home and social-care teams may support residents with PEG feeding, urinary catheters and continuous subcutaneous medicines delivered through syringe pumps.
These activities require appropriate training, clear delegation where applicable, person-specific care plans and staff who know exactly what they are authorised and competent to do.
This practical programme develops safe observational and support skills while maintaining clear professional and role boundaries.
What you will learn
- PEG care: infection prevention, positioning, care-plan checks, feed and fluid principles, tube and stoma observation, flushing where authorised, medicines through enteral tubes where authorised, common problems, red flags and documentation
- Catheter care: infection prevention, maintaining a closed drainage system, bag positioning, urine output, recognising blockage, bypassing, leakage, haematuria and possible infection, hydration considerations and escalation
- Syringe driver/pump checks: purpose of continuous subcutaneous infusion, checking against the care plan and local policy, infusion-site observation, tubing and connection checks, recognising leakage or inflammation, pump-status observation where authorised, recognising alarms or malfunction, monitoring comfort, documenting checks and escalating concerns
- Clear understanding of what staff must not alter outside their competence or authority
- Working within professional scope, local policy, delegation arrangements and the person's clinical plan
Competency approach
- Knowledge assessment
- Demonstration
- Supervised practice
- Direct observation
- Person-specific competency assessment
- Review and reassessment
Who will benefit from this course
Registered nurses, senior carers and other staff who support people with these clinical needs, subject to organisational policy, role and delegation arrangements.
The benefit to your service
The course helps providers reduce the risks associated with increasingly complex clinical care by ensuring staff understand what to check, what is normal, what is concerning, what they are authorised to do and when they must seek help.
Read the course introduction
Care homes are supporting people with increasingly complex healthcare needs.
It is no longer unusual for staff to support residents with PEG feeding, urinary catheters or syringe pumps during palliative and end-of-life care.
The risk arises when people know how to perform a routine task but don't recognise when something is going wrong - or aren't clear about the boundaries of their role.
Our Clinical Skills programme therefore teaches more than the procedure.
With PEG care, staff learn what to observe around the tube and stoma and when to stop and escalate. With catheters, they learn to recognise problems such as blockage, leakage, haematuria or possible infection. With syringe drivers, authorised staff learn how to carry out the checks required by their role and identify signs that require clinical review.
Most importantly, we reinforce the principle that staff should only undertake activities for which they have been appropriately trained, delegated where required and assessed as competent.
The goal is safer clinical support, earlier recognition of problems and clearer accountability for your service.