Training at University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff

At the end of last year, one of our Sales Administrators, Rena, visited Cardiff University Hospital of Wales with Area Representative, John Finister. The internal sales team had been given the opportunity for one of them to attend a two-day student demonstration, so Rena jumped at the chance to experience a training session first hand.

As University Hospital of Wales is one of the top three schools in the UK for Occupational Therapists, Mangar Health organise a yearly demonstration of our key products to help raise awareness with students in their second year of study.

The students that take part in the training session have already carried out several placements in care homes and hospitals so they have a good understanding of the situations in which Mangar products could be used. With that in mind, the purpose of the demonstration and training was to show the value our products can have in those instances.

With over 70 students taking part the training events were split across two days and into two different 90 minute long sessions on each day –  one on safe patient lifting and another on our bathing and bedroom products.

Bedroom and Bathing Training Sessions

The first session was made up of the Leglifter, Bathing Cushion and Archimedes, where John and Rena split the group in half. Rena lead the bathing half of the session, showing the students that everyday tasks such as bathing needn’t be difficult when you start to lose your mobility. At the same time John lead the bedroom session on the Leglifter. Although the Sit-U-Up and Handy Pillowlift were not on display the students were also given a brief introduction to them in this session.

Rena pointed out that “the students in my session were able to try the products out for themselves and although they were worried about sitting on the bathing cushion at first, they were amazed at the support it was able to provide to someone that may not be able to get into the bath themselves. Seeing the live reactions as they were using the bathing cushion was incredible and I felt proud that I was showing the future generation of OTs some life changing equipment that can really make a difference to someone’s life, whether they remain in their own home or go into care.”

Safe Patient Lifting Training Sessions

After the first session the two groups joined together for a presentation on the Camel and ELK lifting cushions, followed by the chance try them out themselves.

Rena said that “although they were apprehensive and a little nervous to lie on the floor, the end result was almost disbelief that they were able to be picked up at the touch of a button. It was great to be able to see the moment on their face where they realised the true value of the lifting cushions.”

“I really enjoyed the whole experience as I was able to benefit from talking to our future OTs. We found out what interested them about Occupational Therapy and why they wanted a career in it, which was really interesting when everyone had a different answer. “

“It was a pleasure working with John on these sessions and I went back to the office and urged everyone to take part so they could see people’s reactions first-hand. The students were receptive and chatty, which made the whole experience worthwhile for me.”

If you would like more information about our Product Awareness Events or training sessions please get in touch with the Mangar Health sales team (sales@mangar.co.uk).