Our palliative care team is the first in the region to develop simulation learning for nurses supporting patients receiving end of life care and their families.
Launched in May 2023, this simulation training aims to support nurses in identifying dying patients, escalating care and supporting the families of those on palliative care pathways.
Clinical nurse specialists in palliative care Roberta Chadbourn and Robyn Willis have worked closely with the Trust’s simulation education team to develop the training.
Simulation is primarily used for training doctors and physiotherapists. However, the two teams identified a gap in the market to support qualified acute and community nurses.
Roberta said: “Just saying the word ‘die’ can be very difficult, even for nurses. It’s human nature to not want to upset people.
“This training is about giving nurses a safe environment to have those discussions, ask questions and figure out the right words to say. It reinforces the care and emotional support that they are already providing, but just gives that bit of extra confidence and some extra tools to have conversations around death and dying.”
Building confidence
Now one year since its inception, the training has yielded positive feedback from participating nurses. And it shows no signs of slowing down – with all sessions for the remainder of 2024 fully booked.
Feedback from a participating nurse reads: “Caring for an end of life patient has always been stressful for me. This session was really informative and after finishing the simulation. I am completely confident now in dealing with end of life patients.”
Roberta continued: “It’s great to see their confidence build, not just throughout the training session, but in their everyday working life as well. You can see the nurses are much more confident in approaching those conversations and asking for support from us in the specialist palliative care team.”
The training, using state-of-the-art manikins, simulation equipment and live actors, sees 10 participating nurses per session. While two nurses complete the active simulation, the others observe via a live feed.
Each training day outlines three scenarios:
- Deteriorating patient – participants recognise that a patient is dying and must escalate appropriately
- Discussions with families – participants discuss a dying patient’s care with their family (played by actors) and answer questions
- Difficult circumstances – participants de-escalate a scenario where a dying patient and their family are in distress
Each session also includes a brief and debrief. The nurses are encouraged to share experiences of death – both personal and professional – and discuss best practice.
“A resounding success”
Robyn said: “This was a total new experience for us and has been a huge learning curve for Roberta and I. It started with a little seed of an idea and we can see how it’s grown. We were going to give it a shot and see if it was beneficial – and it’s been a resounding success.
“One year on, we can see the benefits of sim education in palliative care and now we want to make sure that we’re delivering the very best training that we can.”