Celebrating Excellence Award 2022
Pretty Manyimo, ICSPCT nurse, was shortlisted for the LPT Celebrating Excellence 2022 Awards!
Senior Clinical Research Associate, Sarah Baillon, nominated Pretty for the Excellence in Research Award and made it to one of the two finalists. Pretty has been on a two-year secondment as a Clinical Research Associate (October 2020-October 2022) spending half her time doing this and half working as an End-of-Life Rapid Response Nurse.
As a novice researcher, Pretty conducted original research on the experiences of community nurses caring for patients from ethnic minority backgrounds. Her research has demonstrated the challenges faced in understanding the culture and spiritual aspects of end-of-life care for this cohort of patients. Pretty has presented the findings to her team and various platforms within the Leicestershire Partnership Trust.
Pretty has now been invited to present the preliminary findings at national conferences which included the Sheffield Diverse Voices in Healthcare and the LPT/NHFT Black History Month 2022. Her findings will inform the trust and be used to improve end-of-life care for all.
Pretty has also been successfully offered a place to study for the Warwick Industrial Fellowship ‘Complex deaths: experiences of dying in community settings’, She will be researching on this topic. The project is jointly funded by Warwick University and Marie Curie. She will be starting on the 9th of January 2023 as a parttime student and continue to work with ICSPCT part-time.
Professional Development CNS Role
by Louise Bee- Specialist Palliative Care Nurse
The need for this Professional Development CNS was identified due to the high numbers of newer Nurse Specialists and the need for all team members to have skills across both Specialist palliative Care and End of Life care.
The Covid 19 Pandemic has impacted greatly on access to training, support and development for the whole team especially those newer starters. I commenced my new role as professional development CNS within ICSPCT over the last few months, working 3 days a week and having my own caseload 2 days a week. The new role is multi-faceted.
Within ICSPC I am supporting the CNSs within the team especially the newer starters. I spend days with them visiting the more complex patients and families, I give telephone advice, and support with caseload management. I identify learning/training needs and providing informal teaching.
I am a Non-medical Prescriber and will be supporting newly qualified Non-medical Prescribers in the team through joint visits, phone advice, and yearly competencies.
For new CNS’s who start with ICSPC I will plan the induction programme, facilitate completion of the competencies in the ICSPC Band 6 Development Pathway, arrange and support with training and study days and continue supporting through joint visits and on the phone. The ICSPC Band 6 Development Pathway will be enhanced and developed identifying new competencies going forward.
I am working with the LPT learning and development team, LOROS practice educator team and UHL Specialist Palliative Care CNS education links for improved and joined up palliative care services. The LOROS practice education team have compiled a new interactive 2-day CNS Development Programme which I am involved with, this will help provide improved specialist skills and knowledge, in CNS’s when meeting complex patients and making difficult decisions.
With the LPT learning and development team I am involved in composing a Palliative/End of Life (EOL) Development Pathway for community nurses of all levels to meet competencies and therefore give them the skills and knowledge required to provide generalist palliative /EOL care in the community. This will involve CNS’s providing informal teaching to the community nurses in their hubs with my support and facilitation.
I am a mentor for a community palliative care nurse in Northamptonshire Healthcare Trust which is still in its infancy and am interested to see how other counties work in palliative/EOL community care.
I am excited about this new role both personally and for the team and look forward to continuing this role and hope to ultimately improve specialist and non-specialist palliative and EOL care provided in the community.
Read more
Good News
Congratulations to CNS Demi Clarke and Rapid Responder Dawn Hawkins who have both successfully completed their non-medical prescribing course.
Welcome to Andrea Andrews and Janine Storer, our 2 new administrators who started in the coordination centre in October.
Anticipatory medicines factsheet
by Professor Christina Faull, Dr Helen Hughes, Dr Kerri McEvoy and Alison Pilsworth
ICSPCT and LOROS are starting to use the attached leaflet when prescribing anticipatory medications for end-of-life care.
A LOROS research project explored the experiences and views of family in relation to injectable ‘just in case’ medications at home, this project found a need to de-mystify for patients and carers the rationale for timely prescribing. Highlighted was communication around these drugs and the need for written information as people suggested they did not always retain the verbal information given.
LOROS social area stand
ICSPC will have a stand in the LOROS Social Area week week commencing 21st November for the entire week.
If you are at LOROS please do come a long. There will be the opportunity to meet team members and learn more about what we do and how we do it!
Community and UHL Specialist Palliative care teams meeting
On the 28th September, both the Community and UHL Specialist Palliative care teams met at LOROS to share service updates.
This was the first opportunity since the pandemic to meet face to face and meet new colleagues. Each service had the opportunity to speak about their nursing structure with the introduction of some new leadership, along with educational strategies and priorities. The meeting was evaluated very positively, and a decision has been made to meet twice a year in the future
The next meeting will be held at LOROS on March 23rd.
Thank you to everybody who attended!
Feedback
"Thank you for arranging the placement with Maria I enjoyed working with her and seeing what the team does, it has given me a good insight into when we call your team and what they and we can do support Palliative care patients." - Adrian Utting BSc GCGI PGCE QTLS MCPara MinstLM MSET, Specialist Practitioner (Paramedic)
"Georgia provided all patients with a high standard of care through assessing their holistic needs by exploring their physical, psychological and social needs. Additionally, she provided them with appropriate clinical and supportive advice to support their needs and health and wellbeing. Regarding her treatment, she made appropriate and clear plans for patient care in collaboration with the patients and their relatives, and she ensured that they understood the plan for their care. Also, she made appropriate referrals based on the patient’s clinical need, which served the role of enhancing patient independence within their home and optimising their health and wellbeing. Overall, Georgia provided high-standard, effective clinical care, advice and treatment" - Lauren Wilson, 3rd year Student Nurse
Patient Feedback
"Our concerns were listened and responded to effectively. Good advice and support was also offered with action successfully took on my behalf"
"Time was taken to explain how to use the various medication my father was on to help improve his condition and overall health. The process was explained effectively, and I was informed clearly what will be prioritised. Absolutely superb"
"We were listened to thoroughly and helpful suggestions were made. We were also introduced to services we didn't even know about"
