Why should nurses and carers receive training in end of life?

Receiving end of life care from professionally trained healthcare staff can make a huge difference to the comfort and quality of life of terminally ill people in the final stages.

Worryingly, according to an article in the Nursing Times, a survey carried out by Marie Curie found that nearly 40 per cent of clinical professionals said that lack of relevant experience among staff was hampering efforts to provide the best care to terminally ill people.

In an ideal world, we all like to imagine that we will live out our days feeling content, comfortable, and dignified.

Investing in end of life care for all health and social care workers who work with patients during their final days can make the world of difference for patients and their families.

What is end of life care?

End of life care, including palliative care, is a type of specialist healthcare for people with terminal illnesses and those reaching the end of their lives.

It aims to manage patients’ symptoms and ensure that they are comfortable, content, and supported during their final days.

Hospitals, care homes, hospices, and home care services all provide end of life care to patients that require it. The care may be given by doctors, nurses, hospice staff, care workers, or social care workers.

End of life care looks different for each patient depending on their illness; some people only require end of life care for a matter of days, while others may receive it for years.

Why is end of life care important?

Everyone deserves to feel comfortable and dignified during their final days. This is what end of life care aims to provide for patients, making a difficult time easier for everyone involved.

Reduces pain and improves comfort for people at the end of their lives – People with terminal illnesses may be suffering with pain and other unpleasant symptoms. End of life care aims to do everything possible to ensure that they experience minimal pain during their final days, keeping them as comfortable and content as possible.

Supports patients and their families with end of life decisions and planning – There can be a lot of difficult things to discuss and arrangements to make at the end of a person’s life, end of life care services help the patient and their family make sure they’ve got everything covered.

Provides peace of mind for friends and relatives – When a loved one is reaching their final days, they will need very intensive care which it may not be possible for their family to provide. Knowing that they are receiving specialist end of life care can put the patient’s family’s minds at rest.

Provides emotional support to patients and their families – Healthcare staff trained in end of life care provide valuable emotional support during what can feel like a very lonely and scary time, including bereavement care for the friends and families of patients.

Helps provide patients with dignity during their final days – Everyone deserves to die with respect and dignity. End of life care aims to provide this by listening to and respecting patients’ wishes surrounding medication, where they would like to receive care, and where they wish to die.

Why should nurses and carers receive end of life training?

According to the Triggers for Palliative Care report by Marie Curie, each year about 110,000 people in the UK don’t get the palliative care they need.

The study found that many of these people failed to get the care they required because healthcare professionals did not identify their care needs.

If healthcare professionals fail to identify that a patient requires end of life care, the patient may go on to experience unnecessary pain, discomfort, or stress during their final days.

Investing in end of life training for staff helps healthcare organisations to identify patients who require care early on and provide them and their families with high-quality end of life care and support.

End of life training with CBAT

Here at CBAT, we run a short, affordable, and invaluable course in End of Life Care and Verification of Death.

The course is usually run online in an interactive, virtual classroom and takes just one day to complete.

For more information about our End of Life and Verification of Death training course, give our team a call today on 01772 816 922, send an email to admin@cba-training.co.uk, or book online to secure your place.