Our training and education service the Practice Development Team (formerly Hospice in your Care Home), is able to visit care settings and is also offering support and various education sessions online to over 100 care settings in the Wigan Borough.
About the service
When the service first launched as Hospice in Your Care Home in 2015, it was commissioned to support nursing homes, with the aim of expanding to reach out to residential homes over time.
Care homes are an increasingly important setting for palliative and end of life care, with around 1 in 5 people in the UK spending their final days in a care home.
With the appropriate support and education, care home staff have been helped to provide care which respects the wishes of residents and/or the wishes of their loved ones.
The team consists of experienced registered nurses and health care assistants. It works with staff in diverse settings, to enhance the care of residents in the last few weeks and days of life - with the aim of promoting comfort and dignity.
Hospice staff have extensive experience in palliative and end of life care. One of our aims as an organisation is to share our skills in order to ensure as many people as possible in the Wigan and Leigh area can benefit from our expertise.
The Practice Development Team
In 2022 our award-winning team formerly known as Hospice in Your Care Home was renamed as the Practice Development team.
The team secured recurrent funding and expanded to support more staff across primary, secondary, and tertiary care.
As of October 2022 the team is hosting the Wigan Borough Palliative and End of Life Care Learning Hub.
Read our news articles about the launch and how you can access free training in end of life care.
In 2023, the team launched their Homeless Palliative Care Service, supporting those who are experiencing homelessness or vulnerably housed and are facing health challenges. Find out more about the service here.
Where is the service available?
Before the pandemic the hospice was working with the following 14 nursing homes in Wigan Borough. It now works with over care settings across the Borough from the Wigan Borough Palliative and End of Life Care Learning Hub. The hub is based at the hospice but education and training sessions are held throughout the community. Please see the separate page on the hub for further information.
- Appleby Court Nursing Home
- Ashton View Care Home
- Belong Atherton
- Dean Wood Manor
- Jah-Jireh
- Richmond House
- St George's Nursing home
- Rosebridge Court
- Shawcross Care Home
- Westleigh Lodge Care Home
- High Peak Lodge
- Westwood Lodge
Drop-in sessions
Are you caring for someone?
In January we began holding monthly drop-in sessions at Wigan and Leigh Carers Centre in Hindley.
The sessions are for professionals and members of the public who care for someone who is at end of life or has been diagnosed as palliative.
You are invited to come along to ask any questions and let our Practice Development Team know what support you need.
Michelle Williams, Associate Practice Development Facilitator, said: “These sessions are for health or social care professionals but also carers and family members.
“At the first session we had families who were very interested in engaging with the service and wanted a forum to talk about how they were feeling and to find out how to talk to their relative about their wishes for the end of their life.
“We cover a range of topics related to caring for someone at end of life and are happy to answer any questions carers may have.”
Drop-in sessions take place at Wigan and Leigh Carers Centre, Frederick Street, Hindley on the second Friday of every month from 12pm to 2pm.
The sessions begin with 45-minute presentations (see below) followed by a chance to speak with the team.
- March 10th: Common Symptoms at End of Life
- April 14th: Spirituality at end of life
- May 12th: Dementia and Pain
- June 9th: Loss, Grief and Bereavement
COVID-19
When the pandemic hit the team realised they had to work differently to continue to meet the needs of the care home workforce, and quickly developed an online programme of education and support. This was offered free of charge to all residential and nursing homes in Wigan Borough.
Although the course was developed with care homes in mind, it became increasingly apparent that it was transferrable to other care settings, and many other services approached the team to request access during the pandemic.
Redeployed staff sometimes found themselves caring for dying patients for the first time, and needed support with their learning needs, particularly in relation to recognising dying, communication skills, spirituality and symptom management. Such staff have included extra Care and Supported Living and learning disability teams, who are now working in partnership with the hospice team.
The content of the education programme was also amended in May 2020, to make it more relevant to the particular challenges being faced during the pandemic.
Timeline
- March 2020 Visits to care homes had to stop because of national restrictions and in order to keep residents, hospice staff and care home staff safe. Both the hospice and the care homes stopped admitting non-essential visitors
- May 2020 Free online education and training offered to all 52 nursing and residential homes in Wigan Borough
- May 2020 Free online education and training offered to Extra Care and supported living services - who began to access the training
- Summer 2020 A learning need was identified by Greater Manchester Hospices (GM Hospices) for more education around dementia. Dementia was already integral to what the team were doing but they extended the programme and held additional evening sessions. These were accessed by district nurses and GPs as well as other partners.
- September 2020 Free online education and training extended to the Learning Disability service
- April 2021 All but 5 residential and nursing homes in the Borough access the service.
- June 2021 The first virtual Hospice in your Care Home awards held to recognise the hard work and commitment of all partner care organisations since the pandemic began.
- February 2022 The team is now working with 71 care settings
- June 2022 The team secured recurrent funding and is seeking to expand.
- October 2022 The Practice Development Team at the Hospice introduced the new Wigan Borough Palliative and End of Life Care Learning Hub at the official launch on October 5th, 2022.
What does the service hope to achieve?
The Practice Development Team works closely with staff to promote training based upon the most up-to-date research available and equip them with the practical skills and knowledge needed to provide sensitive, timely and compassionate end of life care.
Additionally, the team strive to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions made in the last few days of life by providing dedicated support and basic training in palliative and end of life care.
The service is not just about education – it’s about working alongside staff and role-modelling to demonstrate good practice.
Please see the external review completed by Lancaster University.
Read more about the work the team is doing to promote ACPs in care settings in this article written by the team manager, Debbie Jones.
Please see our News section for articles about Advance Care Planning, the support given to Elmridge Court extra care and more.
What do we offer?
- Support so staff can understand the principles of palliative and end of life care and integrate these into their everyday routine.
- A formal education programme and training delivered through Zoom.
- An urgent referral service if a care home feels they need support when caring for a dying patient.
- Working with care homes on how to communicate in difficult or distressing situations, such as establishing their residents' preferences and wishes and developing a plan to achieve these (known as Advance Care Planning). This might include talking to GPs, hospital teams and other professionals to ensure all those involved in their care understand the resident's wishes for their end of life care.
- Additional support for those important to the person who is dying.
Mark Lewis, Deputy Head of Operations at Elmridge Court, said: “I had some initial worries on how Advance Care Planning would be presented to vulnerable people or people feeling low.
“The hospice team came in a few weeks ago to talk about Advance care Plans (ACPs) and planning for the future, then they followed this up with another visit to support the process with individual residents, and so many people were interested and attended. The main reason for them doing it was that their wishes about dying at home would be recorded. So many people asked me ‘So, does this mean I’ll be able to die at home?’
“The level of engagement in that meeting showed me it was comfortable for the resident to talk about and it was so much better that they could make decisions now when they’re well, rather than trying to tackle it further down the line.”
What is the programme?
It is a 12-week rolling programme. Below you can see some of the topics we cover:
Week 1:
Day sessions - Definitions of Palliative Care
Evening Sessions - Advance Decision to Refuse Treatment
Week 2:
Day sessions - Promoting Dignity in EOLC
Evening Sessions - Providing Emotional & Psychological Support in EOLC
Week 3:
Day sessions - Communication Skills
Evening Sessions - Managing Catastrophic Haemorrhage
Week 4:
Day sessions - Advance Care Planning
Evening Sessions - Management of Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators at the end of life
Additional sessions:
- HCA Induction Training
- HCA Syringe Pump Awareness
- Syringe Pump Training
Testimonial
Andreea Sfrejea, Registered Manager for The Old Rectory and Norfolk House, reflects on what she has learnt from the online education and training sessions provided by Hospice in your Care Home.
Who is in charge of the resident's care?
The care settings has overall responsibility for the care delivered.
Is there a charge for this service?
The hospice is a registered charity, largely supported by voluntary funding, and all our services are provided at no cost to our service users.
When is the team available?
The team’s core hours are Monday to Friday between the hours of 9am and 5pm, although they are extremely flexible if a specific need is identified and will offer training in the daytime and in the evenings and weekends. Bespoke sessions may also be arranged to meet the specific learning needs of individual teams/organisations.
Our Awards
An awards ceremony is held every year when the hard work of staff both clinical and non-clinical is recognised and celebrated.
Email: pdt@wlh.org.uk if you have any enquiries.