Re-issue / 25 February 2008

Specialist training for Nursing Home staff

A project providing palliative care training and education has been delivered to 44 Nursing Homes in the Southern Health and Social Care Trust area.

Jenny Steen, Project Nurse and Macmillan Nurse Specialist at the Trust, says that the project aimed to develop and enhance the knowledge and delivery of palliative care by all care staff in the nursing home setting.

“Research showed that nursing home staff had a great deal of experience in palliative care but little formal training. They felt that training would help to increase their confidence in caring for patients at end of life.

“A number of issues were raised including the breaking of bad news, communications skills training with relatives following the death of a loved one, patient care during the last 48 hours of life, pain management and the control of other distressing symptoms, and syringe driver management for the administration of medications.

“Each nursing home manager was asked to nominate a Palliative Care Resource Nurse whose role was to provide in-house training to trained and untrained members of staff. They were assisted by the Palliative Care Facilitator and training was carried out in each home.”

Heather Monteverde from Macmillan Cancer Support said, “Palliative care is described as an approach which improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing life-threatening illness through the prevention and relief of suffering by the early identification and treatment of pain and other problems. We were very pleased to be involved in the project.”

A Care Assistant who undertook training said, “The sessions gave me an insight into how the lives of people have changed as a result of life-threatening illnesses and how to communicate as they change.”

The project received financial support from the New Opportunities Fund for a full time Macmillan Nurse/Project Facilitator and administrative support.