Authors (including presenting author) :
Hui WM (1), Chen PH (1), Maria Pi (1)
Affiliation :
Palliative Care Unit, Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital
Introduction :
More patients are dying in non-palliative care settings than in palliative care settings. Thus, how to enhance the end-of-life care in various clinical settings is a challenge faced by health care professionals.
Enhance skills training in palliative and end-of-life care for nurses beyond palliative care setting has been introduced in different clusters. The training has started since August 2019 in KCC. The training involved five services involving inpatient setting, home care setting, out-patient service, day service and consultative service. In addition, a two days communication skills training and one day disease-based tutorial were included. The training is conducted for a period of four months. This training comprising of at least 14 weeks and 2 weeks clinical practicum in Hong Kong Buddhist Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital respectively. The impact of such training has been studied.
Objectives :
To evaluate the training programme and identify areas for future development.
Methodology :
A pre and post training survey was undertaken of nurses who participated in the programme. We asked participants about the confidence and competence in providing care at end of life. We used a rating questionnaire consisted of 26 domains. A rating questionnaire was also distributed to participants to evaluate their level of satisfaction of the programme provided. Qualitative feedback on the programme suggestions was gathered to identify areas for future improvement and development.
Result & Outcome :
Result:
1. We recruited 4 participants from the first group of the training
programme in the survey.
2. All 26 domains were rated higher in the post training survey than the
pre training survey.
3. All participants strongly agreed that the training enhanced their
knowledge to recognize a dying person and deliberate practice of
carrying out effective holistic assessment and understanding of advance
care planning.
4. The most significant improvements in the training surveys were confident
to carry out holistic assessment and use end of life care assessment
tools and documentation.
5. Participants rated 22/24 on satisfaction of the overall arrangement of
clinical placement.
6. In this survey, the participants concluded that the most important parts
they have achieved were skills on identifying patients with PC needs,
empathetic communication, promoting good death, initiating ACP
discussion as well as the role of PC nurse in community setting.
Outcome:
Based on participants’ satisfaction and knowledge achieved, the programme of “Enhance skills for Nurses Beyond Palliative Care Setting” is feasible and effective.
