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Abstract
Background The future direction of Scotland’s healthcare will see a shift in the balance of care from hospital to community and primary care settings (Scottish Government. Transforming nursing, midwifery and health professions roles. [Internet], 2017). Given the increase in people dying at home, future demands for end of life care will escalate as our population lives longer. Meeting this increasing demand requires a well-co-ordinated, timely approach to high quality individualised palliative care. The Ayrshire Hospice were requested to provide palliative and end of life care education to support district nurses (DNs), as their role will be pivotal in this shift.
Aims To evidence the translation of education into practice, and the resulting impact on patient care:
Collaboration with DN service to develop and deliver training to DNs across Ayrshire.
To demonstrate, using the Kirkpatrick evaluation tool, the impact of training on patient care and staff confidence.
To increase collaborative working between DNs and the Ayrshire Hospice.
Methods Pre-course questionnaire to determine existing subject knowledge and inform the programme development. Study days delivered by Hospice MDT (multi-disciplinary team) to DNs Bands 5, 6 and 7 (including prescribers) with end of day evaluation and subsequent 3 month post-course evaluation. Development of information resource.
Results Attendances to date = 105, with 165 projected attendances by end of the project – equates to attendance by 71% of DN team. Evaluations received to date demonstrate translation of education into practice, monitoring will continue until project completion. Early evidence of increased collaboration between DN and hospice staff is demonstrable.
Conclusion Project is ongoing at time of submission. Initial findings indicate aims will be achieved by project conclusion in October 2023. 50% of attendees from the first cohort state learning enabled patients to stay at home who would otherwise be admitted to hospital. Collaboration with hospice MDT has increased, specifically regarding prescribing and symptom management advice.