Excellence in End of Life Care Award 2011

Nomination Form

Nominations must be in by Friday the 12th of August 2011. Results will be announced at the DCHS NHS Trust Celebrating Success Event in

September 2011

NOMINATORS DETAILS
Nominators Name: Theresa Goldsmith
Role: Community Matron
Contact Details
Address:Staffa Health, 3 Waverley Street, Tibshelf
Telephone Number: 01773 778998
Email:
Title of Nomination: A multi-disciplinary approach to equitable end of life care across the health community
AWARD CRITERIA
Outlined below are criteria against which the award will be judged.
  • How it has improved quality of care/patient experience
  • Choice to patients, carers and families
  • Impact of the change to staff /patients/organisation
  • Patient and family involvement
  • Partnership working /team working

EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF NOMINATION
Using the criteria as a guide, in no more than 500 words overall, say why you are nominating this initiative or development in service
SUPPORTING EVIDENCE FOR NOMINATION
At Staffa we have adopted an integrated approach to our end of life management which incorporates the delivery of evidence based care by a multi-disciplinary team of professionals.
We demonstrate an inclusive approach to our end of life management regardless of the patients’ condition. An equitable service is offered to all of our patients whether they are in the terminal stages of cancer, long term conditions or are frail and elderly. These patients are identified and offered the same level of assessment and support in an attempt to enable them to make informed choices about their end of life phase.
This approach has increased patient and carer choice, particularly for groups who might previously been excluded from a proactive approach to their end of life care, for example patients who have end stage chronic diseases.
Here at Staffa, we have incorporated the use of prognostic indicators as part of our assessment process. This has helped in the earlier identification of the palliative and terminal stages of diseases. This in turn supports patients and carers to be integral partners in the decision making about their future care. The use of prognostic indicators support early discussion and help patients and carers to plan in structured way, hopefully not during an episode of crisis.
Through the virtual ward project and our three weekly Gold Standard Framework meetings we have developed a strong multi-disciplinary approach. These meetings have representation from a GP, social worker, district nursing team, community matron, Mcmillan nurse, nurse practitioner and nursing home staff.Whilst developing our multi disciplinary approach we have been able to identify barriers which exist within end of life management. Through this process we have been able to develop strategies to negotiate the barriers and to continue to build on the high quality care which is delivered to our patient population.
The end of life management at Staffa is in line with national guidance (DH 2008) which promotes that patients have greater choice about where they die; there is evidence to suggest that given this choice patients would prefer to die at home (DH 2008, Purdy 2010 DH 2010). We know that the choices that our patients and carers are supported with have improved their end of life care and are enabling more people to die at home. This approach is helping to embed a culture of holistic end of life care and move away from death needing to be medically managed in acute hospital.
NB We routinely discuss case studies at Staffa and review outcomes against patient wishes, then reflect to consider ways to improve outcomes in the future. Case studies available if required
DH (2008) End of life care strategy. Promoting high quality care for all adults at the end of life. Crown Copyright, London
DH (2010)Liberating the NHS: Report of the arm’s length bodies review. Crown
Copyright, London
Purdy (2010) Avoiding hospital admissions what does the research evidence say? The Kings Fund

Please E-mail your completed Nomination to:

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