Background and context Creativity and innovation remain vital ingredients to the success of any organisation. Working in silo can stifle teams from maintaining interest in the activities of the wider hospice workforce. A challenge for many clinical teams is to encourage and stimulate the generation of new ideas and innovations that can benefit and sustain a wider and future workforce including addressing the needs of pre-registration nursing students.

The hospice in-patient unit established the need for a means of communicating key information/resources to highlight the practices beyond the IPU.

Aim

• To create a resource tool for clinical staff and student nurses to share and disseminate information, forging links and engagement with the wider palliative care teams.

• For the tool to support the future re-validation process for Registered Nurses.

Approaches Development of a colourful, attractive “pick n mix” resource board incorporatingthe hospice logo detailing 26 varied opportunities for staff to engage with the wider multi-disciplinary team, and experience local and national services allied to our care.

This tool was developed by a qualified member of the nursing team in the In-Patient Unit and is updated by its originator on a weekly basis to reflect the varied and changing learning opportunities in the Hospice and the wider community.

In addition, the board identifies mandatory training and clinical competencies. This acts as a prompt for staff to acknowledge their personal responsibility to the Hospice and the NMC.

Outcomes The ‘pick n mix' board raised awareness of the diverse ways in which we deliver evidence based end of life care. It enhanced creative thinking and encouraged nurses to remain updated.

Formal evaluations of the number of study leave applications pertaining to the 26 learning opportunities will be audited. A six month review of the success of the tool will take place through group discussions and an anonymised evaluation form.