Background Hospice UK (Resilience: A framework supporting hospice staff to flourish in stressful times. 2015) identified nearly 10 years ago that maintaining the provision of excellent end of life and palliative care requires a dedicated and compassionate hospice workforce, since then the challenges of the pandemic and funding crises in the hospice sector has amplified this situation. Research suggests (Papworth, Ziegler, Beresford, et al.. BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2024;13(e3):e597-e611) that hospices should offer a range of different support mechanisms to ensure staff can access something that works for them, according to their individual needs and preferences.

Aim To introduce the ‘Restorative Resilience’ (RR) model (Wallbank. The Restorative Resilience Model of Supervision: a reader exploring resilience to workplace stress in health and social care professionals. Pavilion Publishing and Media; 2016) of supervision, in order to support and equip hospice staff and volunteers with emotional resources required to provide excellent palliative and end of life care, and optimise retention of staff in this specialised and demanding area of healthcare.

Methods External consultant recruited to provide training in RR for 6 hospice employees with particular skills/experience in staff support. RR model designed to support professionals in processing traumatic workplace experiences and in building resilience to ensure optimum coping strategies. RR model renamed as ‘Reflect & Restore’ for use in the hospice setting.

Results Since initial training, supervisors have delivered 37 individual sessions and 4 group de-briefs for staff following complex deaths on the inpatient unit. Regular ‘Reflection events’ for volunteers have also been introduced. Verbal and written feedback for the model has been very positive; ’I felt much more able to manage during my next clinical shift’ and staff appreciate the opportunity to reflect on practice separately to more formal 1:1s with line manager. Developing a staff support leaflet to ensure staff and volunteers are aware of different mechanisms in place (line management, clinical supervision and employee assistance programme) and how to access.

Conclusion The RR model of supervision has already been successfully applied to many other healthcare settings and this project demonstrates that it is also appropriate, beneficial and cost effective for use in the hospice setting.