The new Elderly People Assistance and Care (EPAC) model has been developed by Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to empower all clinical staff to deliver an enhanced level of care to older patients which addresses both their holistic and medical needs. The model has been produced following consultations with senior nurses, membership of the Trust’s older person’s operational group and older people within the community.
It was officially launched to staff members and local community organisations on Friday 2nd October at Queen’s Hospital. Julie Thompson, lead nurse for older people, developed the EPAC model, she said: “This new framework aims to embed a culture of promoting independence and activity when an older person is admitted or seen as an outpatient within the Trust. The model is holistic in its approach and acknowledges the physiological differences in older patients and recognises the person behind the illness as an individual who has a wealth of life experience. The difference in care could be as simple as providing a hand mirror to a patient to enable them to shave themselves rather than a member of the nursing team needing to assist. All clinical staff across divisions will be expected to commit to this model of care and we will be delivering training to clinical staff over the following weeks to ensure it is fully integrated across our Trust. Nursing assistants have been recruited on each ward to act as ambassadors for the model. They are the eyes and ears of our wards and will really help to ensure the framework is embedded across the Trust'.
Brendan Brown, Chief Nurse and Chief Operating Officer, said: “I’m delighted we’re launching this model of care across all three hospitals at the Trust. We should never lose sight of how important individualised care is, and this model is based on feedback from our patients, and the experience of our staff here at Burton.”
The new model of care follows the launch of the Trust’s three year dementia strategy and the recruitment of a number of specialist teams. Last year, a new enhanced care team was recruited to provide care exclusively for patients with dementia and most recently, a newly established frailty team was introduced to predominantly work with frail older patients over the age of 70 and help reduce inappropriate admissions to hospital.
Next month Julie will be presenting the EPAC model to other NHS Trusts at the National Frailty Assessment Models conference, she said: “I’m really proud of the model of care that we have created here at Burton Hospitals and hope it will be adopted by other Trusts so that we can all take a consistent and joined-up approach to the care of our elderly population.”