End of Life Care Champions

They are among the most difficult conversations facing health professionals, but our staff are being trained to give patients coming to the end of their life additional care and comfort when they need it most.

Patients who are in the last months of their life often have questions they want to ask, along with feelings of anxiety, stress and the fear about what happens to those they will leave behind.

To ensure more staff can help ease those worries, our End Of Life Care team is training staff to become End of Life Champions by recognising when a patient is dying, understanding more about end of life care, and being comfortable about having difficult conversations with patients.

The Champions Days training sessions, held monthly, are open to all staff, to give everyone an opportunity to better support this vulnerable group of patients.

They range from health care support workers to admin staff, and registered nurses to members of the Patient Advice and Liaison Service team.

The sessions explain the terminology of the end of life and what is meant by it. They also discuss palliative care, recognising dying, the importance of clear communication and ethics, as well as being confident in explaining the roles of the care after death service team, the mortuary and chaplaincy.

The training is delivered across the health board’s sites as part of the End of Life Care team’s Parasol Service, based in Tŷ Olwen in the grounds of Morriston Hospital.

Developed in July 2021, the Parasol Service is evidence of further investment into end of life care throughout the health board.

Its objectives include:

• Person-Centred Approach: being proactive in early identification and acknowledgment of uncertainty of individuals in the last year to six months of their life.
• Assessment: holistic assessment from multidisciplinary team which include physical, social, psychological and spiritual needs of the individual.
• Recognition: possibly a person may die within days/hours is recognised, communicated and documented clearly.
• Approach: multidisciplinary team commence All Wales Care Decisions for the last days of life and use the Symptom Control Guidance and have an individual plan of care which is tailored to the individual.
• Sensitive: communication between staff, the person that is dying and those important to the individual.
• Observe: assess for symptoms using Symptom Assessment Sheet. Ensure anticipatory medications are prescribed and then consider contacting Specialist Palliative Care team if input and support is required.
• Lastly: continue to regularly review, re-assess and discuss with the multidisciplinary team.