Becoming the best at what we do.

During the temporary closure of our inpatient unit, our education team took the opportunity to upskill our medical team. By utilising the NES framework for Palliative and End of Life care, we created bespoke education sessions across all five domains at an enhanced level. Investing in our staff helps us continue to learn, develop our skills and ensure we offer the highest quality of care to the Inverclyde community and beyond.

Throughout the education programme, nurses have built on their existing knowledge through interactive sessions and case study scenarios, exploring the patient journey from admission and assessment through to symptom management and discharge planning.

Each healthcare assistant and nurse was provided with outcomes linked to each of the five domains, which are signed off by their manager as part of their professional development and appraisals. These goals provide clear structure for identifying individual learning needs on each of the following topics;

• Fundamentals of Palliative care
• Active listening and difficult conversations (EC4H)
• Advanced care planning and delivery
• Care around dying and the management of complex symptoms
• Loss, grief, bereavement

Each workshop is individually tailored by our education team, with help from our Wellbeing Team, who focus on loss, grief, and bereavement as well as trauma-informed practice training, ultimately helping towards our goal of being a Trauma-Informed Workplace.

Developing Palliative Care practice in the local community

At Ardgowan Hospice, we are committed to enhancing our skills and knowledge of palliative care, and we also work with other health and social care professionals involved with palliative care to enhance their experience too. Our commitment to education extends beyond the hospice. We also participate in research and development to improve our knowledge and that of the wider community.

Everyone working across health and social care has a role to play in providing compassionate end-of-life care. By sharing our expertise, we can help develop the local workforce, helping to ensure that everyone in the community receives the same quality of care.

Over the next few months, we will sustain our support internally as well as for colleagues in care homes and community nursing by conducting educational sessions focused on the five domains of the NES Palliative and End of Life Care Framework.

Who are these sessions for?

Our first group of workshops will be for healthcare assistants, care home staff and community nursing colleagues, with sessions centred around the five domains of the NES Palliative and End of Life Care Framework. We will run both skilled and enhanced sessions to ensure people at all levels can access them.

However, our hope is that as we continue to develop, we will be able to introduce a new set of training sessions for our non-clinical staff within the hospice before the end of the year and extend this offer to the wider community HSCP in the new year.

What is the benefit of people attending these in-person sessions?

Everyone working in health and social care has a responsibility to be informed about palliative and end-of-life care.

By bringing together healthcare professionals from different areas of social care, we can share experiences, learn from each other and develop a better understanding of the challenges faced by people who are receiving care in different settings: at home, on a hospital ward, within a care home environment or at our inpatient unit.

While some sessions will take place at the hospice, our longer-term approach is about taking education directly to the people who need it. Where possible, we want to deliver sessions within workplaces across health and social care. Meeting colleagues in their own environments allows us to understand more about the challenges they face, while making education accessible and relevant to their day-to-day practice.

Who is running/facilitating these sessions?

Sessions are predominantly facilitated by our Palliative Nurse Consultant, Monica, and Advanced Clinical Nurse Specialist, Gemma, alongside other colleagues who bring their own specialist knowledge and experience.

Why does Ardgowan Hospice want to provide education to the wider community?

Photo of previous training session.

As nurses in specialist palliative care, we bear the responsibility of fostering equitable care for everyone. Since achieving this depends on education becoming a shared duty, our plan is to upskill all our nurses so they can, in turn, support community generalists and provide essential palliative care training.

Ultimately, our aim is simple: to share knowledge, build confidence and work together to provide the best possible care for people and families through end of life care.

Sign up to our Palliative Care Learning Programme today. Find out more about our sessions and sign up here: https://forms.gle/a7PPnetsmh7ZB8oV9