4:56pm Wednesday 17th March 2010
THE best training is essential for those who provide care for people at the end of their lives – care that most patients now prefer to receive close to where they live or even in their own home.
The education and resource centre at St Richard’s Hospice in Wildwood Drive, Worcester, provides palliative and end-of-life care training across the county, teaching doctors, nurses, social workers and carers.
The centre is now training specialist registrars – the future consultants in palliative care – offers undergraduate diplomas accredited by the University of Worcester, and provides modules to nurses and healthcare assistants.
The hospice, which is primarily funded through charitable donations, also trains chaplains through its affiliation with Birmingham’s Queen’s theological college and offers courses to student social workers and counsellors.
The centre provides dedicated facilities that may be hired, a specialist library and clinical placements for medical students and other professionals, such as student nurses from the University of Worcester.
An alliance with St Michael’s Hospice, Hereford, helps provide education to both Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
Mark Jackson, the chief executive of St Richard’s Hospice, has praised the Government for its end of life strategy because he believes it takes the principles of hospice care to a much wider audience. He says it will have a positive impact on the care offered to individuals, families and communities.
Mr Jackson said; “We provide the environment, facilities, resources and learning materials to enhance knowledge of palliative and end-of-life care.
“In the past, just 25 per cent of the population has benefited from the fundamental hospice philosophy based on physical, psychological, social and spiritual care in order to give everyone a much better journey. Now, thanks to this initiative, we will be trying to get palliative care to everybody because this will allow more people to be able to die in their own home and may even extend their lives.
“At the moment, just 21 per cent of people in the county have this luxury. With our NHS partners we are trying to increase that number to 31 per cent so that people can die peacefully in the bosom of their family. We want fewer people to die in hospital and the money saved by releasing hospital beds could be spread around the community services, much of it to nursing homes where staff would be made confident in offering palliative and end of life care.”
The education department is run by head of education Heather Campbell, nurse tutor Pip Nicholson and centre administrator Rebecca Stewart.
Fourteen clinical nurse specialists work across the community. Each has an education and training responsibility – helping doctors’ surgeries and nursing homes and contributing to more formal educational projects.
The department, which has the most comprehensive library in palliative care in Worcestershire, runs short courses and study days in such things as basic listening skills and pre and post-death support for children and families, planned and provided by the family support team.
Mr Jackson says the mission of St Richard’s is that everyone should have a better death that is both dignified and peaceful.
He said: “Hospice is a whole philosophy of care which does not end when our patients die, as we have special bereavement teams to visit families for a long time afterwards.
“Palliative care can extend lives – which is one of the reasons that our education centre helps pass our expertise to as many people as possible.”
St Richard’s Hospice provides free specialist palliative care for patients living with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses and supports their families. Each year the hospice team supports more than 2,100 patients and family members in Worcestershire.
Patients are cared for in day hospice, the 16-bed in-patient unit or in their own homes by a specialist professional team as well as many trained volunteers.
In the in-patient unit, specialist staff are on hand 24 hours a day to manage patients’ symptoms. Here, if they choose, patients may spend the last few days of life in comfort and dignity.
St Richard’s needs to raise £4.8 million this year to continue its work and welcomes donations from the public.
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