End of Life Care Facilitator, Gillian Sykes and Clinical Educator in End of Life Care Karen Hagreen for Overgate Hospice, have developed an end of life care champions programme.

Designed to develop the confidence and skills of professionals who care for and support patients in the last year of life, the programme will be taught by clinical teams who will share their specialist knowledge in palliative care for the benefit of the community.

The course is going to be run over seven months and include four study days plus competencies and spending a day in a specialist palliative care setting. The first day, which took place last month,  was on enhanced communication skills.

For the pilot this year the focus is on our community colleagues – but for the 2018 cohort will be opening it up to Staff Nurses in hospital too. If you are interested in joining the next group starting in September/October 2018 please let us know (Email – Gillian.sykes@cht.nhs.uk or karen.hagreen@overgatehospice.nhs.uk)

Gillian, said: "This is a really exciting new initiative to help staff care for our end of life care patients and families and also gain skills, knowledge and confidence to support staff in their teams." 

Karen,  said: "This collaborative approach to education aims to improve patient and family and care experience at the end of life."