Case study:

22 February 2012

Testing out e-ELCA in a large acute trust

Key points

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, a large, four-site organisation with around 10,000 staff, decided to test the potential of the e-ELCA e-learning package (End of Life Care for All) to train staff in end of life care issues.

The package offers over 150 highly interactive sessions covering four core modules in assessment and care planning, symptom control, communication and advance care planning. A fifth course focuses on integrated learning and topics such as bereavement and spirituality.

A project team of nurse specialists and education staff developed a pilot study to find out how staff would react to the e-ELCA approach. Twenty six members of staff, including nurses, allied health care professionals and health care support workers, were recruited to take part between March and May 2011.

Participants chose one of the four key modules and progressed as far as they could. All four modules were covered in the pilot. A pre-pilot workshop was held for participants to ‘have a go’ in a supportive environment. Participants were able to apply for remote access, enabling them to study at home if they wished.

Feedback from the evaluation was positive, with 94% saying they would recommend e-ELCA to others and 47% saying they would definitely continue further study. Participants felt the e-ELCA was of excellent quality and “at the right level”, with one participant saying it “met my expectations and beyond”.

Although most participants completed the e-ELCA on an individual basis, 25% used a combination of individual and group study, demonstrating e-ELCA’s flexibility. Despite the project team having identified the need for participants to have some study time, only a quarter of participants had time allocated. This had a significant impact on completion of modules, with many participants feeling unable to progress as well as they had hoped. Three out of four identified lack of time as a significant difficulty and one of the main drawbacks of the e-ELCA.

Despite some initial difficulties, the post-evaluation workshop showed that many were energised and enthused, not only about transferring their learning into practice but also continuing their studies using e-ELCA. Participants reported they had increased confidence and that they could be more assertive and an advocate for their patients.

Some lessons learned from the pilot have already been addressed, with the development of support sessions for staff in using e-learning and improvements made to IT access and use of equipment. The learning has also been shared locally and across the regional cancer network.

The project team has gained agreement for a further roll out of e-ELCA within the trust and plans a series of meetings to feed back findings from the pilot study to managers, especially around the issue of allocation of study time. The fact that each individual session takes 20-30 minutes to complete makes e-ELCA both flexible and time-effective.

Workshops are now planned for each of the core modules. These will be aimed at supporting staff to integrate learning into practice. ‘Top tip guides’, including useful information and frequently asked questions, will also be developed.