Demystifying palliative care for care home colleagues

Palliative care is strongly advocated for all people living with advancing incurable illness. Within a care home setting there should be a particular emphasis on the importance of palliative care, particularly for those residents who, because of their advancing age, are likely to live with non-malignant diseases such as dementia. The aim of this study was to determine care home managers’ knowledge of palliative care using the palliative care quiz for nursing (PCQN).
Before the beginning of a workshop on optimising palliative care for people living in care homes, 56 care home managers (all nurses) completed the PCQN, a validated questionnaire that is used to assess a nurse’s knowledge of palliative care, as part of a learning exercise. The quiz consisted of 20 questions for which participants could answer true, false or don’t know. The average score was 12.89 correct answers out of a possible 20 (64.45%) which is considered as an average score when considering previous empirical studies.
In response to this 581 nurses and care assistants, who deliver care for people in care home, received a full day workshop on optimising palliative care in dementia. The evaluation of this educational session correlated in notable improvements in palliative care knowledge and practice within the care home setting. Palliative care and dementia awareness e-learning education are now mandatory e-learning modules for all care staff at Four Seasons Health Care. Furthermore, our dementia care framework (DCF) has enabled our colleagues providing care to ensure that our residents receive special resident experiences throughout their journey. In particular care homes which have undergone DCF have reported significant improvements in relation to assessment and management of pain in dementia care, person-centred approaches to spiritual care and sensitive communication at the end-of-life.