You may have seen the Centre for Excellence logo with the words 'Research – Education – Influencing – Practice' next to a puzzle image. But what do those words mean, and how are we making real changes for patients and their families?
On 2nd October, a new pilot program was launched by the Integrated Care Board in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. It will help carers get faster access to important medicines for their loved ones in urgent situations.
These medicines, sometimes called 'Anticipatory Medicine' or 'Just in Case Medication', are used to manage symptoms like pain, anxiety, and nausea at the end of life. For adults these medicines are usually injectable.
Before this pilot, carers had to leave their loved ones and travel to the pharmacy to pick up these medicines, which were not always available right away. This could mean multiple trips to different pharmacies at a time when carers should be with the person they are looking after. This was even harder for people living in rural areas or those relying on public transportation.
Dr Chris Williams along with our system healthcare partners worked hard to bring this project to the pilot stage, and run for 18 months.
Here's how the Centre for Excellence played a role:
Research: Professor Christina Faull and others conducted a study into Anticipatory Medicine, and this study found, among other things, that carers sometimes had difficulty in obtaining these medicines.
Education: Becky Proctor, our Lead Clinical Educator, created a course called Talking About Dying, to train healthcare workers on how to discuss Anticipatory Medicines, as well as other aspects of looking after people who are dying. This course is currently on the education planner.
Influence: Dr Chris Williams worked with other healthcare partners, via the NHS Integrated Care Board’s Palliative and End of Life Care Taskforce, to get the project off the ground.
Practice: Starting on October 2nd, urgent prescriptions will now be delivered to patients and carers, across the region, so carers won’t have to leave their loved ones to get the medicines. We hope if the pilot is successful that other regional health care boards might adopt this to role out across the country.
So we really hope this gives you a guide as to what we do over in the Centre for Excellence.
by Camilla Barrow
I am thrilled to announce the appointment of Dr Chris Williams as the new Associate Director of Research at the LOROS Centre for Excellence.
Chris has worked in palliative care research for the last ten years, with a particular focus on the palliative and end-of-life care needs of older people.
He is an academic GP with a background in health services research and education. His interests include: responding to acute illness in palliative and end-of-life care; managing uncertainty in healthcare; and developing systems to support better end-of-life care in the community. He has worked closely with the NHS and other partners throughout his career, developing and evaluating new models of care and educational interventions.
As our new Associate Director of Research, Chris will lead our efforts to foster ground breaking research, innovation, and collaboration in palliative care, ensuring that the Centre for Excellence focuses on our key priorities whilst delivering meaningful change and improvements to care.
Commenting on the new role Chris said:
“I first worked at LOROS as a Senior House Officer in 2007 as part of my GP training. That experience transformed my understanding; and I’m absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to work with our superb team in the LOROS Centre for Excellence. LOROS’s research makes a real difference to the patients, families and communities we serve; and it will be an honour to lead this forward.”
I will keep you updated as to the dates when Chris will be joining the team and I’m sure you’ll join me in welcoming him to this important leadership role. I am confident that under his guidance, we will continue to build on the strong foundations of the last few years, and continue to drive forward improvements to palliative and end of life care for patients and their families.
Visiting PhD student Ms Eliška Vokřálová, from Charles University in Prague, Czechia, will be visiting LOROS on Tuesday 8th October on an Erasmus+ visit to develop her networks and scientific skills. The Erasmus+ project offers opportunities for people to study, train and gain experience abroad, and is funded by the European Union.
As part of her visit, she will be sharing insights from her research, an ethnographic examination of the counselling work and emotional labour of nurses in the gynaecological palliative care ward.
Ethnography is a method for collecting data often used in the social and behavioural sciences and is collected through observations and interviews, which are then used to draw conclusions.
We invite everyone to join us for Eliška’s presentation (bring your questions!) from 1-2pm in Twycross.
Presentation Title: Eliška Vokřálová (Charles University Czechia) "Multi-layered uncertainties in palliative care: the role of the general nurse"
A massive congratulations to Sue Ashton on her acceptance to the NIHR Principal Investigator Pipeline Programme (PIPP) for research nurses and midwives. This training programme will develop her skills, knowledge of experience of being a Principal Investigator on NIHR portfolio studies.
They received over 130 applications for 36 places so the offer alone is an achievement. It speaks to the great work that Sue does within research, her talent and her dedication.
Principal Investigator Pipeline Programme (PIPP) for research nurses and midwives is organised and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). This programme is designed to equip research nurses and midwives professionals with the expertise to lead high-quality clinical research, essential to advancing patient care. Once this experience is secured, Sue will take on a PI role for an NIHR portfolio study within LOROS. The final phase of the programme will involve mentoring other learners who are at an earlier stage of this programme or on other PI development schemes.
This programme is open free of charge to all research nurses and midwives. Please contact the Research team if you would like to know more about upcoming development opportunities.
Tara Maitland is also embarking on a Senior Leadership Apprenticeship with Executive MBA. After a lengthy and competitive application process Tara has been accepted to study with Arden University.
This is a fantastic opportunity, the programme provides current and future leaders with the knowledge, high-level leadership and management skills and desired behaviours to become more effective leaders, while delivering a professional pathway to Chartered Manager or Chartered Fellow status. Upon successful completion of the programme (approximately 17 months), Tara will graduate with the Senior Leader Apprenticeship award and have the opportunity to continue to study for a further 5 months to achieve an Executive Masters in Business Administration (MBA). The apprenticeship will be challenging but will be rewarding for both Tara and LOROS.
The team was busy coming to visit you all across the Hospice to celebrate Red for Research! It was lovely to see you all and have a chat about what the team are doing in the Centre for Excellence. We hope you enjoyed the sweets too!
Thank you all for your engagement we hope to further strengthen this throughout the coming year and ensure that our patients continue to receive the best possible evidence based care.
Our quiz winner this year was Emma Gilliver! Congratulations Emma we hope you enjoy your prize.
We look forward to celebrating with you all again next year but in the meantime please don’t be strangers. There are lots of opportunities to be involved with research so pop over and see the team and see how you can get involved.
