1. Development and Pilot of the
NHS Education for Scotland Online Palliative Care Training Series for Health & Social Care Support Staff
NHS Education for Scotland: Prof. Anne Watson & Ms Val Findlay
University of Strathclyde: Prof. Marion Bennie, Dr Gazala Akram & Mrs Emma Dunlop Corcoran
NHS: Ms Alison MacRobbie, Ms Gill Harrington (Highland)
& Dr Catherine McCusker (Greater Glasgow & Clyde)
Macmillan: Ms Joyce Dunlop
Aim
University evaluations of the Macmillan NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (GG&C) and NHS Highland projects observed a steady integration of the community pharmacy team into local palliative care services. The NHS GG&C evaluation focused on community pharmacy support staff online training materials, and complementary to this program of work in NHS Highland was the creation of a palliative care training package for nursing/residential care home staff, with a view to: incorporating elements of this resource into their board-wide program for palliative care in care homes; improving access to training through technology and; examining how resources can be made available for the wider health and social care support workers. This proposal presents an opportunity to grow and sustain the relationship between these health boards, Macmillan and the University, and synergise the learning to progress both local and national benefits from this investment.
Training Development Methods
Palliative care strategies, initiatives and formal education / training available in Scotland were identified and mapped against Macmillan NHS GG&C and NHS Highland training resources. The training content was combined and through consensus a finalised set of training modules per three different staff groups was developed.
Participant Recruitment
Managers from the following sites were telephoned and information sheets were ed.
GP Surgeries
Via questionnaire, NHS GG&C practices who had not received, but would welcome, palliative care training were identified
Potential participating NHS Highland practices were identified by NHS Highland Macmillan project lead.
Community Pharmacies
Potential participating pharmacies were identified by NHS GG&C Macmillan Facilitators and NHS Highland Macmillan project lead.
Care Homes
Potential participating homes were identified via NHS GG&C Macmillan Steering Group and NHS Highland Macmillan project lead.
Figure 1: Opportunities and Outputs of Training Pilot
Training Pilot & Evaluation
The training package was developed using Articulate Storyline. Drafts of the training package were circulated among the project team for content, presentation, function and clinical edits, as were modified drafts of Impact Assessment Questionnaire (previously utilised in NHS GG&C Macmillan Project training evaluation) designed to assess user satisfaction, perceived usefulness and potential training impact
The pilot training package was launched and hosted online by NES on 11th July Site management were alerted to this by phone and were ed the link.  The link was also ed to the Scottish Palliative Care Pharmacists Association (SPCPA) and to key stakeholders for providing feedback. Pilot participants were asked to complete training sessions by the end of August Participants were prompted to record their learning by completing a questionnaire (hosted on via a link at the end of each training session.
What’s Next?
Participant responses to the questionnaire will be collated. Edits will be made to the training package based on participant responses and feedback provided by SPCPA and key stakeholders. The training package will be launched nationally in the Autumn of The opportunity to explore developing sessions for other groups remains.
Figure 2: Screenshots of Pilot Training Package