Elizabeth Care® provides a career pathway from apprenticeship through to a post registration, on the job, degree course for care staff, registered nurses, and other professional staff to deliver dignity and compassionate person centred care.
Person-centred care is a fundamental feature of healthy cultures in health and social care organisations. A key contributing factor is education, its fitness for purpose in the workplace, and a good organisational culture. An organisation where person-centred outcomes are delivered as a shared purpose with, and reflecting the perspective of, the individual.
Elizabeth Care Programme
There are three distinct roles which have been created for the growing complexity of care that needs to be provided in the sector.
The programme comprises education to three levels of care staff (apprentice, practitioner care worker, Elizabeth nurse/ professional) as outlined below.
Mapped to the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ)
- Levels 6-7 The Elizabeth Nurse or Healthcare Professional will be:
- At Level 5 the Elizabeth carer will be a specialist carer for older people, a blend of care giver and everyday living assistant to the person. This might be an existing care assistant or new employee who wishes to join a new pathway in care of older people at Apprentice or Foundation Degree level.
- At Level 4 Apprentice Role offering a route into the care profession, based on person centred ideals and behaviours.
The hope is that the 360 SF framework and the learning through the Elizabeth Care education programme will be a contribution to the Health Minister’s aspiration for this country to be a ‘great place in which to grow old’, and turning this aspiration into a reality. The expectation is that the Elizabeth Care education programme will be a means of attracting and equipping an underdeveloped workforce in social care with specialist skills in person centred care as well giving them a new career pathway.
Why it is needed:
- The increase in complexity of care needs for older people and those living with long term conditions requires greater socio-therapeutic expertise.
- The continuing emphasis on the need for person centred care based on relationships.
- The need to build public confidence in health and social care provision.
- Concern within provision to improve and sustain compassionate care cultures promoting service user dignity and implementing best practice.
- The need for better practice development opportunities in health and social care.
- The need for better career pathways for practitioners in some health and social care settings such as the Independent sector.
The learning arises from the accredited 360 Standard Framework that defines excellence from an older person’s perspective. It focuses on how to deliver dignity and compassionate care, transforming the caring culture. It was initiated and developed by Patricia Duff OBE and Rosemary Hurtley. Pat was a Chief Nurse of a Health Authority and Head of Quality Education and developed the first strategy of nursing, and has experience in education, quality improvement, management and care of older people across health and social care. Rosemary has worked as a campaigning consultant occupational therapist for older people in care homes for 25 years. The vision has been co-produced with older people, professional experts and colleagues, educators and care providers over the last 12 years. They have been recently joined by Justine Cawley to help turn the vision into reality working with a team of teaching fellows.
Key points:
- The first care route to follow a focused approach from apprentice, through to care practitioner to Elizabeth Nurse or other healthcare professional, specialising in the care of older people.
- Develops a skilled, specialist workforce to care for older people.
- Offers a career pathway that professionalises the care workforce.
- Gives work-based on the job learning, and a blended approach of taught elements and practical application in the workplace; work based experience is the key to learning.
- Uses a person-centred socio-therapeutic model that promotes integration between health and social care, and a multi-disciplinary approach focussing on both the social and health needs of the patient/service.
- Enables the creation of a route from FD FHEQ level 4 to the potential of MSc, at FHEQ Level
The idea of the Elizabeth Nurse and the Elizabeth Care Practitioner has been developed by leading practitioners in the field, with the objective of providing holistic, high quality and personalised care to our older citizens.
The Elizabeth initiative has received positive endorsement from a range of key stakeholders and has been presented to Ministers and other leading politicians, all of whom have received it with great enthusiasm.
For more information please contact [email protected]