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Clinical Newsletter, latest news

BLOG: Sky’s the limit for Echo

The adage that we’re stronger together couldn’t be more true than within health care. With increasing pressures on resources, mutual support together with sharing of knowledge and experience is more critical than ever.

There’s no denying that technology has a crucial role to play in this, and that’s where Project Echo comes in.

Harnessing video-conferencing technology and structures, this exciting project is breaking down some of the traditional barriers and ‘expert to non-expert’ teaching hierarchies by creating networks of shared learning so that more people benefit. Importantly, it recognises that in many ways we are all both learners and teachers. For example, in a care home the health care assistant is often more of an expert on a particular patient than the palliative care expert based miles away.

Dr Jeff Stephenson, Medical Director at St Luke’s, said: “Project Echo is an innovative new concept, creating a learning and mentoring network that enables non-experts to develop more confidence in looking after patients where they are.

“Those involved have no need to travel as they can access Project Echo meetings simply by using their smartphone, and the narrow band width used means it’s all relatively glitch free. On their screen, they can see the various ‘spokes’ and participate in an inclusive, structured discussion.”

Where it originated in the US state of New Mexico, Project Echo is already making a big difference in improving patient care. Its founder, a professor of hepatology in a teaching hospital, came up with the idea when considering ways to address the challenge of thousands of people from across the state needing his care versus the limited time he had available to treat them. With many dying unnecessarily from Hepatitis C – a curable liver disease – there was a real urgency to his quest.

And so Project Echo was born as a way of using technology to disseminate his specialist knowledge to hundreds of local family practitioners so that they could then give patients the expert care required. Over time, with thousands of patients being treated close to home the professor’s waiting list fell dramatically to just two weeks.

This illustrates the huge positive impact just one specialist can make on the lives of many through sharing their expertise via the network facilitated by Project Echo.

The project couldn’t be a better fit with St Luke’s status as a ‘hospice without walls’, enabling those with a terminal illness to receive the best care regardless of where they are. Dr Jeff said:

“Obviously, it is impossible for us to see everyone, so Project Echo is about equipping professionals wherever they are to care appropriately for their patients.

“The aim is for St Luke’s to become a specialist hub, co-ordinating and running Echo meetings and linking up non-experts through a network. The first network we intend to establish will be with local care homes. We will meet around once a month and link up to as many as want to be engaged.

“This provides an opportunity for some teaching and case-based discussion that will equip and increase the confidence of nurses, health care assistants and other professionals in care home settings without us having to be directly involved.”

Looking further ahead, Project Echo has exciting potential to bring big benefits in clinical settings. For example, networks around palliative care could include local community hospitals, district nurse teams and GP practices. However, its use needn’t be confined to this area.

Dr Jeff said: “Blue sky thinking is that eventually there could be a palliative care services network that benefits less developed countries. A specialist hub could link with several cities around the world to provide invaluable training, resources and support to them. The sky really is the limit!”

National perspective – Hospice UK Project Echo

Credit | Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for additional content.

23rd July 2018/by Robert Maltby
https://www.stlukes-hospice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/PROJECT_ECHO_BLOG_HEADER.jpg 773 1030 Robert Maltby https://www.stlukes-hospice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/stlukes-logo.png Robert Maltby2018-07-23 12:24:192018-07-23 14:28:56BLOG: Sky’s the limit for Echo
Clinical Newsletter, News

NEWS: Your time, your story – listening services in GP surgeries

Our pilot listening service in GP surgeries launched earlier this year, providing a platform for patients to share their stories.

For three Fridays of the month, Jutta Widlake, our head of social care and one of our volunteers has been spending the day at Ivybridge Health Centre, providing a listening service to patients.

The doctors at Ivybridge Health Centre, which is part of Beacon Medical Group, are promoting the service to any of their patients who are bereaved and want to talk about their experience and what they are going through.

Jutta describes the pilot as an opportunity for anyone who has been affected by bereavement to use the service as a chance to tell their story. She said, “It is not a counselling or therapy session, it is a chance for someone else outside of their close social network to witness their story, giving them the time to be heard.”

One point that Jutta is keen to reiterate is that the sessions are for anyone, not just someone who has an involvement with St Luke’s. They are open to anyone who is bereaved and would like the time to be listened to.

Dr G Davies, a GP at Ivybridge Health Centre, said, “We are delighted to be working in partnership with St Luke’s on this pilot project. The listening service fulfils a much needed gap in giving time and support to bereaved patients during what can be a difficult and distressing time. We recognise the importance of this resource and also the need for this to reach wider into the community, our patient advisors who regularly talk to our patients are able to sign post to this valuable service, and we have also engaged with our community nursing team who may see families who do not approach the surgery directly.”

The pilot is initially being run on a six month basis at the Ivybridge surgery. They are holding four slots every Friday, (excluding the first Friday of the month) two in the morning, two in the afternoon, both of which will be 90 minutes long; allowing enough time for each individual to share their story.

18th August 2017/by Jesse Cambridge
https://www.stlukes-hospice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/IVYBRIDGE-BLOG-IMG.jpg 772 1030 Jesse Cambridge https://www.stlukes-hospice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/stlukes-logo.png Jesse Cambridge2017-08-18 12:57:202018-04-18 12:41:37NEWS: Your time, your story – listening services in GP surgeries
Clinical Newsletter, News

NEWS: St Luke’s Crisis Team initiative update

It has been a year since the St Luke’s crisis team expanded their services out into East Cornwall and things are looking hopeful for the future of the pilot project.

The pilot initiative which was launched in August last year, saw us expand our care for terminally ill patients who need a 72 hour window of specialist help at home to stabilise symptoms, avoid any unnecessary admission to hospital or facilitate rapid discharge from hospital or our specialist unit. Infact, all hospital and specialist unit patients known to St Luke’s, will now automatically receive contact or a visit by the crisis team post discharge.

The team has been working in close partnership with other community health and social care providers in East Cornwall to enhance end of life care services and offer solutions to crisis situations where a patient does not have care arrangements in place.

Crisis Team lead nurse, Sharon Smerdon said, “In the last year we have had a steady referral rate from East Cornwall and some very appropriate referrals to facilitate discharges from Derriford. Since June we have followed up discharges from the specialist unit and in August have started to follow up on those discharged from Derriford – this includes all patients known by the St Luke’s team in both the Western locality of NEW Devon and those in East Cornwall. We are still working with commissioners over funding for the continuation of the project and remain hopeful of this for the future.”

Since the expansion of our services last year our crisis team have also launched a Patient Centred Leadership project in East Cornwall, to encourage communities to come together in care by exploring new creative ways of building up a solid network of care for the patient. This involved developing a steering group, holding a two day programme for the nurses of the crisis team and three community nurses from Cornwall and developing processes and paperwork to assist with identifying patients and carer networks and enabling them to deliver end of life care themselves.

18th August 2017/by Jesse Cambridge
https://www.stlukes-hospice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/crisis-team-blog-post.jpg 772 1030 Jesse Cambridge https://www.stlukes-hospice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/stlukes-logo.png Jesse Cambridge2017-08-18 12:06:062018-04-18 12:41:46NEWS: St Luke’s Crisis Team initiative update
Clinical Newsletter, News

NEWS: Our new initiative – Advance Care Plan cards

During Dying Matters Awareness Week, we launched our Advance Care Plan card, with the aim of encouraging conversations with patients about their future care. As with an organ donor card, the card will hold key details that will alert medical professionals that a patient has an Advance Care Plan in place that should, if possible, be followed.

The card will be the size of a credit card and will include the patient’s name and next of kin or significant other’s details.

Michael Thomas, one of our End of Life Educational and Clinical Skills Facilitators, came up with the concept, he explains, “I joined St Luke’s last May, just in time for the Dying Matters ‘Let’s Talk’ Conference. This was what inspired me to come up with the idea for the card. Death and dying is currently one of the most topical health care topics, within the media, but unfortunately it is not a conversation enough of us have.”

Michael explained that he had come across an elderly lady who had been admitted to the Emergency Department of a hospital and because staff couldn’t find her Advance Care Plan, her wish to die at her nursing home was not fulfilled.

“I asked myself why we don’t have something as easily recognisable as an organ donor card? We need something that is simple and would be easily recognisable anywhere, by any medical professional”.

Michael adds, “It has to be stressed however, that whilst all wishes would be respected and followed as much as practically possible. It is not a legally binding document. Should an individual have wishes that pertain to the refusal of treatment for instance, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, then this should be discussed in the first instance with the individuals General Practitioner or Healthcare Professional and/or their personal solicitor.”

Templates for Advance Care Plans can be accessed online in our Information Hub on the St Luke’s website www.stlukes-hospice.org.uk/acp.

18th August 2017/by Jesse Cambridge
https://www.stlukes-hospice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/ACP-BLOG-POST-IMG.jpg 772 1030 Jesse Cambridge https://www.stlukes-hospice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/stlukes-logo.png Jesse Cambridge2017-08-18 11:48:532018-04-18 12:42:07NEWS: Our new initiative – Advance Care Plan cards
Clinical Newsletter, News

NEWS: New look for our nursing and community teams

In May we introduced a new dress code for our St Luke’s nurses and community teams, the latest step in reinforcing the St Luke’s name.

For too long patients have not been able to distinguish St Luke’s nurses as being from St Luke’s, often mistaking them as nurses from other charities, especially when they have had previous access to multiple carers. Despite traveling over 60,000 miles a year to help people in their homes, we still suffer from a lack of awareness that our care at home is a full specialist service that only we offer.

In a move to create a consistent and professional clinical workforce, our St Luke’s at home and hospital teams are now dressed in a smart new uniform, clearly identifying them as from St Luke’s. Alongside the new dress code, we have also introduced name badges to help improve patient engagement and to help patients feel more at ease when in contact with our staff. This came about from the #hellomynameis campaign, a national campaign that was launched by Dr Kate Granger, who died last year from cancer, to encourage and remind healthcare staff about the importance of introductions in healthcare.

In other news, all St Luke’s band 6 community and hospital nurses are now operating a rotational system to improve their skill set in both acute and community settings.

18th August 2017/by Jesse Cambridge
https://www.stlukes-hospice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/DRESS-CODE.jpg 772 1030 Jesse Cambridge https://www.stlukes-hospice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/stlukes-logo.png Jesse Cambridge2017-08-18 11:28:222018-04-18 12:42:14NEWS: New look for our nursing and community teams

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