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Teaching palliative care principles to UK nursing home care assistants
Author(s) -
Dowding Chris,
Homer Pam
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
international journal of nursing practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.62
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1440-172X
pISSN - 1322-7114
DOI - 10.1046/j.1440-172x.2000.00242.x
Subject(s) - nursing , palliative care , medicine , vocational education , health care , distressing , psychology , pedagogy , chemistry , economics , economic growth
This paper describes the initiatives that led to a study day for Health Care Assistants in the UK, focusing on the principles and practice of palliative care for practitioners. Topics covered were ‘What is palliative care?’, ‘How can you help patients with pain’, ‘Needs of the dying patient’, ‘I don’t know what to say’, ‘Answering awkward questions’, and ‘Ways of relieving distressing symptoms’. Participants valued the study day and feedback showed that the Health Care Assistants, essentially assistants to qualified nursing staff with minimal or no training themselves, had many vocational and emotional needs that were not being met.