Introduction

This paper provides a brief update on the progress of funding provided by Dr Tyrrell Evans and Isabel Potter in memory of Siân Evans, to support nurse and GP education and training in palliative and end of life care.

Progress on the Newly Qualified Nurses and Paramedics Community of Practice 

Background and original objectives:

In March 2020 retired nurse, Siân Evans, Tyrrell’s wife and Isabel’s mother, died aged 69 after many months of care and support from St Christopher’s Hospice. Siân Evans was a former nurse and psychodynamic counsellor.

After Siân’s death her family wanted to use the money they raised to fund a group that would support new professionals who may be experiencing patients’ deaths for the first time. They felt that by properly supporting new professionals, who will care for people at the end of life, we could achieve lasting improvements to patient care for years to come. 

In October 2021 the Newly Qualified Nurse community was first launched.

Key outcomes to be delivered:

1. Through monthly virtual session this group aims to create a cohort of new healthcare professionals who are confident to support patients and families affected by life-limiting illness.
2. The community aims to reach nurses from differing settings within the health and social care sector.
3. The community aims to provide delegates with greater resilience and a shared sense of pastoral support.
4. St Christopher’s CARE will provide the group access to experienced speakers on a variety of topics as requested by the group, related to palliative care.

Programme of work:

1. Newly Qualified Nurses community of practice launched in Oct 2021 Creation of Online Learning Platform for session recordings and additional resources.
2. Creation of Discord platform for community networking and support.
3. Monthly sessions with a topic focus and opportunities for discussion led by a nurse facilitator and relevant clinical speakers.
4. Each session to be evaluated with a poll to understand effectiveness of teaching and relevance.  Occasional feedback-gathering surveys.
5. Continued marketing efforts focussed on social media, mailing lists, relevant organisation out-reach and blog articles.

Progress towards outcomes for project:

To date, since its launch in Oct 2021, St Christopher’s has delivered 22 sessions and 44 hours of learning with the community of newly qualified clinicians, reaching a total of 90 Newly Qualified Nurses and Paramedics across a variety of settings from care homes, hospitals, hospices, community settings and schools. Following the inclusion of paramedics within the community in 2023 we have 10 newly qualified paramedics from the London Ambulance Service who have been benefitting from the community. 

To date attendees have predominantly been from London and the South East, but we have also seen attendees from Wakefield all the way to Malaysia. The delegates have learnt from 16 different clinical experts across 19 different topics related to palliative care.

In the last financial year the community has covered various topics of interest as specified by the community at the beginning of the year. Topics include Breathlessness, Mental Capacity, Recognising dying and Heart Failure. The community have had access to 10 different clinical experts this year and have spent 20 hours together as a community. 

We have a video from one of the doctors currently on the Community of Practice available here: https://vimeo.com/994920977/6fa7d8de32?share=copy (To view the video, it is placed in the bottom right hand corner of the page)

The community currently has 26 members with the most recent additions being London Ambulance Service Paramedics. 

Experience of learners:

In this financial year 85% of survey respondents rated the sessions ‘excellent’ with the other 15% rating the sessions ‘good’. No respondent rated the sessions ‘satisfactory’ or ‘poor’. 96% of respondents would recommend the community to a friend or colleague.

Qualitative feedback:

“I love how there are guest speakers that have more in-depth knowledge and provide us with different tools/acronyms and information to take away into practice”

“I really like the chance to chat about difficult situations or things I don't understand and get advice in a supported environment”

“what I've found useful: real-life experience from more experienced nurses in similar situations to my current working environment”

“I've found all of the sessions really helpful and interesting, especially the one on bowel obstruction, there was so much to learn”