Educating health educators: a survey of hospital staff completing a certificate in health education course

The success of Health care professionals (nurses, a midwife, a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist) working in a large NHS Trust hospital who had completed the Certificate in Health Education with the support of their employer, were interviewed. The study objectives were to seek their views on the quality of the course, to determine the extent to which participants were able to apply their new found knowledge and skills in the care they provided to patients and the level of support received to allow them to do this. Barriers that prevented staff from routinely applying health education in their work were identified. The findings indicated that the majority found the course content to be good and relevant to their clinical work but they identified lack of time due to the pressure of routine clinical work as the main barrier to the promotion of health education in their clinical area.