Learning opportunities to support with end of life care

Providing end of life care requires specific skills and knowledge, and it can be a challenging task for care workers. We look at some of the support available to help develop your learning around end of life care.

We know that end of life care can be a challenge for care workers, but it’s something which is so important. Ensuring that people are able to spend the final days of their life in the way that they choose is something which can provide great reward for people working in care.

We’ve partnered with Health Education England (HEE) to create two specially designed learning paths to make sure that care workers supporting people at the end of life have the skills, knowledge, and confidence they need to provide high-quality, personalised care.

The learning pathways draw on information and modules from the End of Life Care for All (e-ELCA) eLearning programme. This programme aims to enhance the training and education of the health and social care workforce so that well-informed care can be delivered by confident and competent staff and volunteers to support people wherever they happen to be.

It offers over 180 eLearning sessions which are written, peer-reviewed and regularly updated by leading experts.

The sessions are grouped into nine modules:

• Advance care planning.
• Communications skills.
• Symptom management.
• Social care.
• Bereavement care.
• Spiritual care.
• Integrating learning in end-of-life care.
• Specialist care.
• Learning paths.

The e-ELCA also offers learning paths, which provide a set of specific modules from the above which are targeted to learning for specific staff groups.

Skills for Care and HEE have worked together to create two of these specific learning pathways, one which provides tailored support for care workers and one which supports nurses.

The ‘Skills for Care learning path: Care workers supporting a person near the end of life ’is designed to provide a greater understanding and confidence to care workers supporting a person near the end of life, and covers subjects such as Introduction to Principles of advanced care planning understanding and using empathy, dementia care, and talking about death and dying.

The ‘Skills for Care learning path: Nurses working in care homes’ aims to support nurses working in social care to support the person receiving care to live well until they die, and covers subjects including…understanding and using empathy, discussing ‘Do Not Attempt CPR’ decisions, understanding and assessing spiritual need and spiritual distress, relationship between palliative care and end of life care, and assessing those with fluctuating mental capacity.

Find out more about the Skills for Care end of life care learning paths.

Find more support and resources about end of life care.

Find more learning opportunities for 2023 on our #KeepLearning spotlight.

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