Over 800 delegates and speakers gathered in Liverpool last week for Hospice UK’s annual conference ‘The art and science of hospice care’. Several members of staff from Hospice UK were also there to help the event run smoothly – here we summaries some of their conference highlights.
Networking and learning from each other
The main theme of the conference for Sarah Russell, head of research and clinical innovation, was collaboration and friendship across settings, roles and boundaries:
“There were wonderful examples in posters and spoken sessions of how people had worked together to make a difference to care. This was shown by new friendships developed and old ones renewed. What this means to practice is that care develops together and connections are made between data, outcomes, practice and research through shared discussion and learning.”
This sentiment was echoed by Marie Cooper, practice development lead, who said one of the highlights of the conference for her was “being part of the hospice community – so many fab colleagues, many now friends, and such a powerhouse.”
For Emily Lever, corporate partnerships manager, the conference was an opportunity to find out more about the challenges facing the hospice sector: “For income generation, we don’t often hear about the nitty gritty issues that people who work in the sector are facing.”
Grants manager Karl Benn added: “As always it was great to meet a range of people at the conference – new faces and old! Talking to people and hearing their plans/ideas for future developments was exciting and I was glad people made use of the ‘meet the team’ sessions.”
For marketing officer Maddy Race, who has only been with the charity for a couple of months, one of the highlights was getting to meet member hospices and learn more about the sector:
“I thoroughly enjoyed meeting such a variety of people and learning more about the palliative care sector, which is all so new to me.
“Although I have no medical background, it was interesting to hear more about clinical issues and I really enjoyed the celebration of the holistic, therapeutic side of hospice care through the creative strand. Overall, it was a great few days, and I’m looking forward to next year already!”
Favourite sessions
Several people mentioned the parallel session on the role that rehabilitation has in palliative care as one of their highlights.
Marie explained: “I got very useful insight into the ‘art of the possible’ when an individual practitioner, through to the whole organisation, incorporates such an approach. Exciting work and so person centred. And we saw that the power of goal setting when done properly can be tremendous.”
Emily commented: “On the face of it the two words ‘rehabilitation’ and ‘palliative’ are not often thought of as aligned, but when you remember that hospices are about giving people quality of life, and helping people to maintain a sense of control and dignity in their lives, it makes so much sense.”
Emily was also pleased to see the paper presented Wendy Ann Webb from St Richard’s Hospice on the provision of hospice care to homeless people, and how some hospices are raising awareness of the lack of care and support of people who are the most vulnerable in our society:
“It is a subject that is sadly rarely discussed, and gave me food for thought, that there could be opportunities for Hospice UK to partner with other charities such as Shelter, Crisis, etc in helping to raise awareness of this, even fundraising opportunities.”
One of national hospice support manager Elizabeth Palfreman’s favourite sessions was by Claire House Children’s Hospice where CEO David Paster and hospice at home manager Lesley Fellows discussed how everyone who works in a hospice is a ‘fundraiser’ – from those providing care to the board of trustees – and how changing the culture of an organisation can lead to greater income.
As information specialist, Melanie Hodson’s favourite session was, predictably, by Bill Noble, editor-in-chief at BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care (an official journal of Hospice UK), who set out to inspire people to get their research published and so build the evidence base for hospice and palliative care.
It is also may be no surprise that for data and analysis officer Lucy Olliff, one of the conference highlights was learning about how data are being used by hospices and academics to better understand the national and local need for palliative care and how to improve services to meet these needs.
Lucy explained that she is keen to see Hospice UK “help galvanize the sector into action around appreciating and using data.”
Creative strand
Many people also enjoyed the more creative side of the conference.
Melanie explained that she liked “the way arts theme threaded through the programme and brought the patient voice to the fore.”
For Maddy, one highlight was contributing to the giant sunflower mosaic artwork: “A calm and relaxing activity, in contrast with the choppy Mersey waters outside! The sunflower is going to look great adorning a space in Hospice House soon.”
Marie sums up the contribution of the arts to the conference as “offering a sometimes nurturing , challenging, stimulating or entertaining dimension which really allowed us to identify in an other way with those we seek to care for – fellow souls, all on our own unique life journey.”
Presentations from the conference are available to download from the Hospice UK website and videos of the plenaries and a selection of parallel sessions will be available to view later this week.
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