Emmerton Park, located in the beautiful coastal town of Smithton, Tasmania had seven of their nursing and care team undertake another Reverse PEPA education program.
The team members were made up of Registered and Enrolled Nurses, and Extended Care Assistants.
Topics for this Reverse PEPA program included:
– How to recognise when a resident is deteriorating and acting upon that knowledge with confidence,
– How to improve communication skills with residents with cognitive decline,
– How to talk with family members about death and dying,
– How to listen effectively
– How to open up conversations about palliative care,
– Learning about the Residential Aged Care End of Life Care Pathway (RAC EoLCP).
A valuable outcome of the education program was being made aware of the advantages of implementing the RAC EoLCP tool. Permission was sought and granted from the Brisbane South Palliative Care Collaborative (BSPCC) to use this tool in our facility. Following the process in this tool has allowed our facility to provide high quality end-of-life care to our residents and their family through providing evidence-based best practice management strategies. Nursing and care staff using this tool, have found it to be of great benefit to their nursing and caring practices which has allowed them to become more proactive and responsive to the care needs of a resident nearing end-of-life and to their family.