Farleigh Hospice leads the way in end of life education

Chelmsford-based Farleigh Hospice delivered one of its biggest ever virtual training sessions on end of life care this week. Hosting a remote end of life care course for 67 members of the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) on Tuesday 26th January.

Using Farleigh’s specially designed virtual training suite, the content for day included elements such as identifying palliative care emergencies and appropriate treatments, Advance Care Planning, identifying when someone is dying and the use of anticipatory medication.

The session was delivered by Daimon Wheddon, End of Life Care Lead for the EEAST, Dr Eva Lew, Farleigh Hospice Medical Director, Dr Sue Griffith, Head of Education and Research at Farleigh Hospice and Farleigh Consultant Dr Abi Ponnampalampillai.

Sue Griffith, Head of Education and Research at Farleigh Hospice said: “The EEAST asked us to deliver training to their clinicians on end of life care to improve their knowledge and confidence in this area. We are passionate about supporting a good end of life care wherever people need it, and were happy to share our expertise. We created a programme tailored specifically to the end of life scenarios ambulance clinicians face.

“The session was a great success for us. We have been delivering virtual training for a number of years now, but being able to use our technology to reach so many people in one session in the midst of a pandemic was incredibly satisfying. Out of more than 100 paramedics invited, 67 participated - which is just amazing! It demonstrates the ambulance service team’s commitment to improving end of life care and to building stronger links with the hospices in the area. We hope to develop a programme of bite-size learning virtual events for the EEAST and look forward to working with them again.”

Farleigh’s educational programme is designed to support health and social care providers and arm them with the skills and knowledge to deliver high quality, responsive end of life care for people living in mid Essex. The hospice is keen to work with more external organisations in this way to deliver end of life education.

Daimon Wheddon, End of Life Care Lead for the EEAST said: “We would like to say a huge thank you to Farleigh for facilitating such a fantastic training session for us. End of life care is a specialist and vitally important subject and our East of England Ambulance (EEAST) clinicians found it extremely beneficial."

The education team at Farleigh Hospice has over 40 years of palliative care experience between them and provides similar learning programmes to primary care groups such as; domiciliary workers, care home staff, care agencies and other healthcare professionals including local GPs and pharmacists. Farleigh also supports the teaching of staff at Broomfield Hospital.