Authors (including presenting author) :
Ng HYN(1), Ko PS(2), Cheung KK(1), Ma SY(1), Tsang WY(1), Ng YB(1), Lauw WL(3), Leung WM(3), Lee KY(3), Lung M(4), Man SL(4)
Affiliation :
(1)Palliative Care Unit, Department of Medicine and Geriatrics, (2)Nursing Services Division, (3)Community Nursing Service, United Christian Hospital, (4)Geriatric and Rehabilitation, Department of Medicine, Haven of Hope Hospital
Introduction :
Frail elderlies in end-of-life phase are prone to repeated hospital admissions, engagement and empowerment of Residential Care Homes for the Elderly(RCHEs) in providing end-of-life care(EOLC) to their frail residents are increasingly imperative. Through the EOLC programme in RCHEs started in United Christian Hospital(UCH) and Haven of Hope Hospital(HHH) since October of 2017 and 2018 respectively, a palliative care Specialist OUtreach Nurse Delivery (SOUND) training programme was tailor made for RCHEs in Kowloon East Cluster(KEC).
Objectives :
To enhance partnership and engagement of RCHEs, and to empower their staffs in providing EOLC to the frail elderlies.
Methodology :
Palliative care(PC) nurse provides on-site training with flexible time arrangement to staffs of RCHEs in KEC. The basic course comprises of four sessions covering ten topics on EOLC. A “Pre-test” vs. “Post-test” design was employed. Outcome measures were the pre- and post-training scores in knowledge and satisfaction survey of participants.
Result & Outcome :
From October 2017 to September 2019, 883 staffs from 44 RCHEs (50% are private aged homes) in KEC participated in the training sessions with 1943 attendances.627(71%) participants were patient care/health workers,184(21%) were nurses while 56(6%) were allied health workers.186 staffs attended all four sessions and were awarded with certificate of attendance. The mean knowledge scores were improved by 20%(p< 0.001,paired t-test),11%(p< 0.001,paired t-test),13%(p< 0.001,paired t-test), and 27%(p< 0.001,paired t-test) in the four sessions respectively, regardless of type of aged home, any prior related EOLC training and staff ranking. The satisfaction survey findings were generally positive. Overall response rate was 89%(ranging from 85% to 93% among all four sessions), with a total of 1723 responses.96-99% of respondents rated strongly agree or agree to all the evaluative items on the questionnaire. They generally thought that the duration of the training sessions was appropriate, the course content is practical for use in their workplace that they would be able to apply the knowledge learned, and the overall training was good or excellent. The results suggest that the SOUND programme has engaged the staffs of RCHEs and improved their knowledge on EOLC to better equip them in providing EOLC to help the frail elderlies stay in the community (their familiar place) for as long as possible.
