Funded by a grant from Hertfordshire Community Nurses’ Charity, the five-day intensive course enabled the nurses to feel confident in moving into their new roles.
The training was delivered by a number of palliative care specialists, including a hospice medical director and director of patient services, a pharmacist, two lecturer practitioners, a palliative care consultant and an experienced community liaison nurse.
The five days covered a wide variety of subjects – from symptom control to communication to mental capacity to palliative care emergencies (see box, right, for full list of topics).
Karenann Spicer, director of education and research at Peace Hospice Care, felt that the intensive approach to training was hugely beneficial: “We brought all the nurses together in one room to explore a wide range of topics as a group. A period of self-directed learning and the chance to engage with each other in an open forum helped the nurses to bond as a team and they gained confidence together to tackle their enhanced roles.”
Outcomes and benefits
Post course confidence questionnaires established that the nurses felt more confident in undertaking their enhanced roles as community nurse specialists and their feedback showed they received, what they considered to be, comprehensive and relevant training as part of their personal development.
Every participant reported feeling very confident about moving into the enhanced role, discussing clinical decisions with GPs and multi-disciplinary colleagues and working as a team. Most were very confident about conducting difficult conversations or answering challenging questions, as well as identifying and escalating safeguarding concerns and managing palliative care emergencies.
Peace Hospice Care recently completed the rollout of SystmOne patient data software within across all services. This software, combined with the ability of the community nurse specialists to work with greater autonomy, will allow each nurse to take responsibility for their own caseload of patients.
The team’s confidence in approaching advance care planning, supporting patients and carers and dealing with palliative care emergencies should ultimately ensure that they can deliver a high quality service and facilitate care and death at home for as many patients as possible.
Given the growing demand for palliative and end of life care, particularly in the home environment, this project has been a very timely one. The Hertfordshire Community Nurses’ Charity has helped to ensure that Peace Hospice Care’s hospice at home team is ready to face the many challenges ahead.
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