Free online training programme on advance care planning launched

Categories: Education.

Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust has worked with Canterbury Christ Church University and hospices in Kent to produce a free, 10-module training programme to support healthcare professionals, carers, families and patients to prepare for the end of life by making advance care plans.

An advance care plan encourages people to talk about their future and share their wishes with their family, friends, carers and healthcare professionals, making sure they are in charge of their healthcare decisions, right to the very end.

This programme has been designed to equip individuals with the knowledge and skills needed to start discussing the concerns, preferences and wishes of patients, residents or other users of health and social care as they come to the end of their lives, so that they are fully involved in decisions concerning their living and their dying, a process otherwise known as ‘advance care planning’.

Each unit focuses on a specific aspect of advance care planning, including definitions and examples, legal capacity, practical help and advice when discussing someone’s impending death, and their personal wishes for management as they end their life.

Later units focus on the needs of specific groups including the elderly, dementia and other long-term debilitating conditions. There are separate units focussing on people with learning disabilities, those wishing to die in their care or nursing home, and a unit focussing specifically on children and young adults.

The units have been developed by local experts in the field of end of life care with the generous support of Health Education Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

They are free to access, as either individual units or as a complete programme, as often as needed. 

This training is designed to give users the skills and knowledge to begin talking to people in their care who are at the end of their life. 

Nurse consultant for end of life care at Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, Mary Kirk, said: “This project will allow individuals to increase their knowledge around advance care planning and help initiate what can be a difficult discussion.

“The programme contains some sensitive film clips of real people explaining their experiences with advance care planning and why important it is to them.”

“With this week being Dying Matters Week with, the theme this year of ‘Talk, plan, live’, we hope this training programme will help people do exactly that.”

Partners involved in the project are: Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, EllenorLions Hospices, Pilgrims Hospices, Demelza Hospice Care for Children, Medway Community Healthcare and Heart of Kent Hospice.

Find out more and access the programme on Canterbury Christ Church University website.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *