The impact of in-house education on staff confidence in delivering palliative and end-of-life care: a service evaluation.

Abstract

Background: Palliative and end-of-life care (EoLC) education is available to all community and hospital healthcare staff in one NHS trust in the north-east of England. It is also available to care home and domiciliary care staff within the geographical area of the trust.

Aims: This service evaluation assessed the effect of current in-house education on staff confidence levels in delivering palliative and EoLC. It also examined staff perceptions of how attendance at these courses impacted on the palliative and EoLC patients receive across the locality.

Method: A mixed-methods approach was undertaken. Anonymous data were collected via surveys (n=238) sent out in March 2023 covering educational courses that were delivered from 1 January to 31 December 2022 with a 13% response rate. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were explored using Braun and Clarke's (2012) six-stage approach to thematic analysis. A second staff member was asked to review the data to increase the trustworthiness of the study.

Findings: Staff confidence levels in delivering palliative and EoLC increased by 19% (somewhat confident) and 23% (extremely confident) following attendance at trust education. Staff perceived that those patients received better palliative and EoLC as a result their attendance at these courses. The qualitative data identified five main themes: symptom control, psychological support, holistic care, patient advocacy, and advance care planning. Limitations of the study included the low survey response rate and lack of exploration of patient/carer perceptions directly.

Conclusion: Palliative and EoLC education can increase staff confidence levels in care delivery and, as perceived by staff, results in better care for patients receiving palliative and EoLC. These findings provide evidence for the trust to consider making palliative and EoLC training mandatory, which could also be considered more widely regionally and nationally.