I am absolutely delighted to have taken on the role of National Clinical Lead for Palliative and End of Life Care for Nursing.

Having been in post for a few weeks I’m now beginning to link in with key individuals in each of the Health Boards to truly represent nursing across Scotland, ensuring the nursing voice is fully heard on behalf of patients and those important to them.

My passion is communication and I believe fully in the human connection that we as nurses have with our patients.

Compassion is about the human experience of noticing, feeling and responding.

Delivering compassionate care has to be fundamental for all staff, and supporting nurses to be able to do this is one of my main goals.

Strategic Framework for Action

The Scottish Government is committed to working in partnership to support a range of improvements in the delivery of palliative and end of life care in Scotland.

The primary objective of my role is to support Living Well in Communities to deliver on Commitment 1 of the Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care.

Support Healthcare Improvement Scotland in providing Health and Social
Care Partnerships with expertise on testing and implementing improvements
in the identification and care co-ordination of those who can benefit from
palliative and end of life care.

This commitment is about improving collaboration across health and social care, collaboration that will support people to live as long as possible in their own homes as they approach the end of their life.

It is important to note that at times it is absolutely essential for people to be in hospital. We must also support provision of, and create the right conditions for, good end of life care within a hospital setting.

What we should be trying to avoid is inappropriate hospital admission.

Anticipatory Care Planning

One way to achieve this is by encouraging earlier conversations with patients and those close to them.  Living Well in Communities are supporting the development of a national approach to Anticipatory Care Planning (ACP) to promote this.

Our next national ACP workshop on 7th June will see the launch of the newly developed ACP documents, mobile app and showcase tests of change and examples of work going on throughout Scotland.

Scotland has encouraged anticipatory care planning in end of life care since Living and Dying Well, the Scottish Government’s 2008 national action plan for palliative and end of life care in Scotland.

The Chief Medical Officer for Scotland’s Annual Report 2015/16 – Realising Realistic Medicine – will support this process, putting the person receiving health and care at the centre of decision-making and encouraging a personalised approach to their care.

Information Sharing

My role will include sharing information within the nursing world of any outputs from all of the Commitments.

I will also support information sharing regarding any new policies or guidance relating to palliative and end of life care, such as the soon to be released Competency Framework for Palliative and End of Life Care.

My Mission

I am on a mission to ensure that all nurses know the four principles of caring for people in the last days and hours of life.

Health and social care providers across Scotland are committed to the provision of consistently high quality end of life care for all that reflects the principles set out in the National Statement.

These are what excellent care of the dying should be measured against:

• Principle 1 – Informative, timely and sensitive communication is an essential component of each individual person’s care
• Principle 2 – Significant decisions about a person’s care, including diagnosing dying, are made on the basis of multi-disciplinary discussion
• Principle 3 – Each individual person’s physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs are recognised and addressed as far as is possible
• Principle 4 – Consideration is given to the wellbeing of relatives or carers attending the person

Get In Touch

I plan to update you on our work every month so check back here, and I would like to hear from you, so please get in touch.

You can follow me on twitter: @SandraC65402031