Palliative Care Resource Booklet for Care Homes

The Problem

Christine covers a vast area, meaning it is difficult to physically get round every care home to inform and provide education to staff in this very important area. It became evident to her that many carers working in care homes are not aware of the principles of palliative care and unlike nurses, do not come across people with life threatening illnesses every day. In addition they are often isolated from acute and community nursing and don’t have the opportunity to learn about subjects like this. Care home workers are often unaware of who to contact about palliative care and how to access the services available. There was no existing resource about palliative care specifically aimed at care homes that Christine could recommend.

The Solution

Christine decided to develop a simple, easy-to-understand booklet to inform and assist care home staff in this sensitive area of care. The aim of the project was to ensure that staff in care homes better understand the principles of palliative care and are equipped with the relevant knowledge to give them confidence in dealing with patients with terminal illness. It also aimed to provide information to carers on how to access the Macmillan Nurse service. This not only help the care home staff, but also has the objective of providing a better standard of palliative care to care home residents and reducing the likelihood of them having to be admitted to hospital in the final days of life. This patient-centred approach provides comfort to relatives and reduces distress at this time.

The booklet covers areas such as:

• What is a Macmillan Nurse?
• What is Palliative Care?
• What is a Hospice?
• What is Cancer?
• The Last Days of Life

How MidTECH has helped

Having introduced the booklet into care homes in Warwickshire, Christine entered it into MidTECH’s 2006 awards, where it won the low tech category. There was clearly potential to make the booklet available more widely to aid care home staff across the country. Radcliffe Publishing Ltd, of Abingdon, expressed interest in publishing it and MidTECH helped to negotiate a contract between them, Christine and the PCT. It will be published nationally in summer 2008.