Paper
Friday, July 23, 2004
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Friday, July 23, 2004
3:00 PM - 3:30 PM
This presentation is part of : Posters II
Measuring the 'Value-Added' Effect of a Community-Based Education Programme in Palliative Care
Virginia W. Dunn, MSc, BSc, RGN and Annie E. Topping, PhD, BSc, RGN. School of Health Studies, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Learning Objective #1: n/a
Learning Objective #2: n/a

Background: A partnership project under the auspices of the UK Department of Health and Yorkshire Cancer Network was devised to deliver a structured educational programme based on 2 palliative care pathways currently used in the UK: the Liverpool Integrated Care Pathway for the Last 48 Hours of Life (Ellershaw & Wilkinson, 2003); and the Gold Standards for Quality Palliative Care in the Community (Thomas, 2003). This 3-year rolling programme began in May 2002 and involves 2 educational facilitators working closely with 17 local community health service providers to plan and deliver a programme based on the 2 pathways yet tailored for their organisation.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of a community-based educational programme on palliative care services by exploring the effect on palliative care provision, the individual practitioner and the specialist palliative care services and service providers as organizations.

Variables needing to be studied and methods developed for their evaluation: 1. palliative care delivered to dying people in the community 2. individual community nurse practitioner’s perception of competence in palliative care; 3. interaction between the generalist nurse and palliative care nurse specialists; and 4. palliative care priorities and plans of the community health organizations.

Design: A multi-method approach was developed to address the objectives. Working with stakeholders, community nurse participants, the project management group and involved researchers, feasible operationalization of the variables was accomplished to demonstrate the effect and ‘value-added’ of the educational programme.

Implications: The ability to demonstrate the link between delivered education and important outcomes is often difficult and inconclusive. This poster will discuss the process of developing these outcomes.

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Back to 15th International Nursing Research Congress
Sigma Theta Tau International
July 22-24, 2004