Training Requirements
Mandatory Courses
To perform a cervical smear, you must first complete the following mandatory training courses:
- ‘Cervical Cytology Sample Takers Foundation Course’ (MkM Healthcare)
- ‘Unit 1: Cervical Screening Programme’ (e-lfh)
- ‘Cytology Update’ (SEL WDH), refresher course to be taken every 3-years
Then, to perform smears independently, you must enrol in one of the following courses:
- ‘Fundamentals of General Practice Nursing (Level 6)’ (University of Greenwich)
- ‘Cytology Training for Primary Care Staff’ (SEL WDH)
Practical Training
Once you have completed the theoretical aspect of the course, you will take part in practical training. For this, you’ll be assigned a mentor which is usually an SSSA-trained Practice Nurse.
For your practical, you must perform:
- three smears under supervision of your mentor
- five smears under supervision of your mentor (on a separate occasion to the initial three)
- 20 independent smears
Logging Smears
Once you have performed a cervical smear you must log it on Teams:
- Login to Microsoft Teams.
- Select the ‘Teams’ icon in the bar to the left of your screen.
- Navigate to your surgery and select ‘See all channels’ (Penrose Surgery shown as an example ⬇️)
- From the channel list, select ‘Surgery Logs’.
- In the bar that opens at the top of your screen, select ‘Cervical screening log’.
- Enter the patient’s EMIS number and date of their smear into columns 1 and 2 of the log, respectively.
Reviewing Smear Results
Clinical Admin are responsible for reviewing test results. As detailed in our Cervical Smears page, normal results will be filed and abnormal results will be assigned to a member of the nursing team.
During your training, you MUST check ALL results for smears you have conducted and note the result in the Cervical screening log on Teams.
Then, you must make a note of this in your Practice Assessment Document (PAD), which your mentor will provide you with.
External Assessor
Once you have performed 20 independent smears which return normal results, you are ready for the final part of smear training - observation by an external assessor.
To arrange this:
- Inform your mentor that you have completed your practical training.
- Contact our Learning and Development Coordinator (see Key People to Know) - who will organise for an external assessor to attend the practice.
On the day of your observation, the assessor will be present while you perform five smear tests. However, only three are necessary to pass the training (booking five allows room for cancellation).
If you pass, your assessor will sign off your PAD. You should then forward this to the University of Greenwich / SEL WDH. A lecturer will review your PAD, and award you with a certificate of completion. You’ll then be given a smear taker number (same as your trainee number minus the ‘T’) and can complete smears independently!