JUST ONE in three staff working in three public long-stay care units for elderly patients in Dublin had been educated in palliative care at the beginning of an Irish Hospice-sponsored study. Some 98 per cent had expressed an interest in such training.
The results arose from a project which aimed to identify current practice in end-of-life care, and to develop a programme to improve it, a report on which is to be published next week.
The project included a survey which was distributed to 102 registered nurses and nurse managers, 60 of whom responded, and 74 healthcare assistants, 25 of whom responded.
Of the 60 nurses, just 8 per cent said they had a specific qualification in palliative care or palliative nursing, while 30 per cent had attended study days in palliative care. However, almost 97 per cent of respondents said they would be interested in attending planned education in palliative care of the older person.
Among healthcare assistants, 40 per cent indicated they had attended in-service, study or lecture days relating to palliative care, but 100 per cent of those surveyed said they would be interested in pursuing such a planned education course.
The findings were part of the Improving Quality: Caring for People Living and Dying in Long-stay Settings project, a report on which is to be published next week by St Francis Hospice. A steering group, chaired by Dr Regina McQuillan, was established to oversee the project.
The report notes that a quarter of people over the age of 65 die in a setting other than the home, an acute hospital or private nursing home, with the majority dying in long-stay care facilities. However, it notes that “while staff in long-term facilities have a variety of experiences in dealing with death and dying, they may lack formal training in palliative and end-of-life care practices”.
Despite this, 79 per cent of nurses felt adequately supported to provide palliative care to patients in the last 24 hours of life, while 88 per cent felt they were competent in communicating with families and providing support to them in this period.
Meanwhile, the report found that of 37 residents who died in the year prior to the project taking place, just six had a documented chaplaincy referral in the 48 hours prior to their death. Among its recommendations, the report found that there “is a need to review the manner in which residents’ spiritual care needs are addressed”.
As well as the anonymous staff questionnaire, the project used other methods including focus group interviews, patient reviews and individual interviews.