Working in a Nursing Home
Supporting End-of-Life Care in Nursing Homes
It is the greatest privilege to care for a person in their journey towards end of life and in their final moments. As a staff member working in a nursing home, this is what you do so well. We understand that it can be challenging for many reasons. You may have developed a very strong relationship with the person and his or her family. It can be an emotional time as the resident may not have discussed his or her wishes for end of life. Relatives may not know what questions to ask you, what to expect or how to have a conversation about end-of-life care with their loved one.
- Caru recognises this and is designed to support you in delivering quality palliative, end of life and bereavement care with confidence, while also supporting your health & wellbeing.
- Caru understands that all staff can support a resident at end of life and our FREE education and training events are for ALL STAFF from household, catering, administration, nursing, healthcare assistants, physiotherapists, porters and occupational therapist.
Caru will benefit you if you:
- Are passionate about supporting people at end of life
- Want to champion excellence in end-of-life care for your residents, families and staff
- Want to engage residents, families and colleagues to seek their ideas for improvements
- Want to do drive change in end-of-life care in your nursing home
To find out more about our training programme click here.
Resources to Help You on This Journey
Toolkit for Compassionate End of Life Care
Irish Hospice Foundation created the Toolkit for Compassionate End-of-Life Care to provide healthcare workers with information, guidance, language and resources that will support them in caring for those who are dying and their family and friends.
Developed in consultation with healthcare staff in acute hospitals, residential care and nursing home sectors, and those working in bereavement support and education, the Toolkit for Compassionate End-of-Life Care includes resources and guidance on the following subjects:
- Communicating bad news
- End-of-life care planning and preparation
- Care of the dying person
- Care after death
- Supporting the bereaved
- Self-care for staff
Advance Care Planning For Professionals
This page provides useful tips to health and social care professionals about advance care planning. It will support you to have meaningful conversations that will tell us what matters most to people.
Person-centered care means taking the time to find out what the person wants to know. It also means finding out what their wishes and preferences are regarding their end-of-life care.
Advance Care Planning should ideally happen before the person is admitted to hospital or a nursing home. However all too often, it does not.
Health and social care workers play an especially important role as advance care planning is a key part of person-centered care.
Palliative Care for People with Dementia
Below is a suite of guidance documents for healthcare staff to help improve palliative care for people with dementia in all care settings. They were developed by IHF in collaboration with researchers at University College Cork as practice guidelines for people providing palliative dementia care. Each guidance document comes with a brief factsheet.
Other Resources that Might Interest You
Telling It Like It Is – Experiences of Older People at End of Life
Publication by The Alliance based on the findings of the National End of Life Survey, which was Ireland’s first nationwide survey that asked bereaved relatives and friends about the care their loved ones and friends received at the end of life.
National End of Life Survey, HIQA
The National End of Life Survey is the first national survey asking bereaved people about the care provided to their relatives and friends in the last months and days of their life. The purpose of the survey is to learn from people’s experiences of end-of-life care in order to improve the services provided both to people who are dying, and to their loved ones.
Time to Reflect Report
Time to Reflect is the findings from a survey commissioned by Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF) to explore the impact of COVID-19 and public health measures on the experiences and perceptions of the Irish population in relation to dying, death, and bereavement during this time.