The home has completed the first session of the ABC End of Life programme - a two-day course designed to increase the confidence and ability of nursing and care home staff to support residents who require end of life care – and is now implementing learnings with residents and family members.
East and North Hertfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group’s Care Homes Vanguard funded two one-year education posts to provide the ABC End of Life Care education in nursing homes.
Caroline Smith, previously Practice Development Nurse and Jane Landon, previously Hospice at Home Sister at Garden House Hospice Care were appointed to the posts and to date have trained more than 500 care home staff across 30 organisations.
Jane and Caroline were invited to speak at Guysfield Care Home’s ‘Journey to Outstanding’ meeting forum where family members have an opportunity to discuss any concerns with management.
Caroline and Jane said were pleased to take part, saying: “We sensitively talked about advanced care planning, the last year of life, signs of dying and other related topics. This led to a very encouraging open discussion and participants left feeling very positive.
“Our aim was to inform family members what to expect, and to make them feel comfortable about having difficult conversations with loved ones and staff about dying matters.
“Participants found the aspect of ‘eating and drinking at end of life’ particularly informative.
“We have successfully delivered End of Life education to over 500 staff at nursing and care homes in North and East Herts, but we feel it is also important to engage with family members and the wider public to address misconceptions and fears surrounding End of Life Care.”
Pawel Michalewicz, Manager at Guysfield Care Home said: “We received very positive feedback from staff as well as relatives after meeting Caroline and Jane. It gave all of us extra confidence to discuss such a sensitive subjects as End Of Life care. This also provided relatives with an additional form of support. I truly believe that this is a great project and we will continue to work together to educate all staff and support families in Guysfield Care Home”