Case study:

11 May 2010

Training to support end of life care in Derby-Burton

Key points

An innovative training pilot is taking place in three hospices in Derbyshire and Staffordshire for healthcare staff who provide end of life care for patients.

The programme will be offered first to registered healthcare staff and, in the longer term, support staff. The training package has been put together by Derby-Burton Local Cancer Network and up to 180 people will benefit from the first year pilot, which began in September 2009.

The network based the training resources on the core competences for end of life care, produced by Skills for Care and Skills for Health, with the aim of giving staff a better understanding of end of life care issues. Competences essential for care were ‘hand-picked’ to help create a work-based learning and assessment programme consisting of:

A scenario-based course delivered over three days

A workbook to support the learning and e-learning

A practice-based competency document from the end of life care competences and core principles.

Thanks to the collaboration between the network’s partner organisations – East Midlands Cancer Network, Southern Derbyshire Workforce Development Team, Nightingale MacMillan Unit, Ashgate Hospice and St Giles Hospice – the training should help staff to understand better the needs of the patient as well as those of their family and friends.Subject to positive evaluation, the programme will be recommended as the key introduction course for end of life care in the region.

The programme has also been designed with future learning in mind. It should enable staff to access additional learning modules if they wish to build on what they have learned.The network is in discussion with a higher education institution about having the programme accredited.

The training programme has also taken into account existing learning in the field such as the RCN palliative care competences, NHS Scotland’s Guide to Using Palliative Care Competence frameworks and Sunderland Teaching PCT’s education competency framework.

Phil Mayor, Education Facilitator, East Midlands Cancer Network, hopes commissioners will take up the programme, subject to positive evaluation, and adapt it to their own needs. He sees the pilot as a critical stage in developing a ‘gold standard’ in learning and education for healthcare staff providing end of life care.