PRIORITIES / Operational Excellence in Home-Based Palliative Care
Operational Excellence in Home-Based Palliative Care
An exchange of knowledge, experience, and expertise. The new CHCA Palliative Care ECHO Hub invites home care providers and palliative care specialists to participate in a series of facilitated sessions addressing the identified gaps and challenges in home-based palliative care. Using the Project ECHO philosophy of ‘moving knowledge rather than people in order to increase access to best practices and reduce geographical health disparities’, the CHCA Palliative Care ECHO Hub will improve the ability of local health care teams to provide better palliative care at home.
Working in partnership with Pallium Canada, as part of the Palliative Care ECHO Project, the CHCA Palliative Care ECHO Hub will:
Do you have the core competencies to provide high quality home-based palliative care?
The Canadian Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Competency Framework establishes a minimum national standard for palliative care in Canada and provides a guideline for core competencies for nurses, personal support workers, social workers, doctors, and volunteers. For home-based palliative care providers, the Canadian Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Competency Framework offers a foundation for continuous education, skill-building, and practical application.
Essential Skills is the theme for the 2023-24 Home-Based Palliative Care ECHO sessions. The learning sessions and resources will address the priority competency domains in the Framework and share knowledge, experience, and expertise in specific palliative care domains.
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Communication: Engaging with Families in Conversations about Serious Illness (June 14, 2023 12:00pm to 1:00pm EST)
The Communication domain outlines essential skills for the care of those affected by life-limiting illness when patients, caregivers, and the healthcare team may experience uncertainty and strong emotions. Effective communication helps to establish therapeutic relationships, ensures that patients and their caregivers understand and participate in decision-making, enables interdisciplinary teamwork, and facilitates smooth transitions between care settings.
Join our ECHO learning session to learn an adaptation of the Serious Illness Conversation Guide to consider the unique needs of children and their families when receiving palliative care. The session will explore challenging situations, way to collaborate with parents and family members and how to interact and communicate with multiple disciplinary healthcare teams.
Subject Matter Experts:
Presentation slides by Camara van Breemen MN, Nurse Practitioner, Canuck Place Children’s Hospice, Rachel Neufeld MN, Nurse Practitioner, Canuck Place Children’s Hospice, Rachael Black RN, BSN, Palliative Care Nurse Clinician Maple Ridge Palliative Care Consult Team. Fraser Health.
Access the On-Demand Video and other Resources in the ECHO Hub Community
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Self-Care: Caring for Yourself When You Care for Others (May 10, 2023 12:00pm to 1:00pm EST)
The Self-care domain is paramount for health care providers. It encompasses a spectrum of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, including self-awareness and reflection, maintaining professional boundaries, and practising holistic wellness strategies for the individual provider and the team.
Join our ECHO learning session to learn how to recognize the signs of compassion fatigue, realize the impact on care and take steps to intervene. Explore how individual providers and their employers can effectively address the physical, mental and spiritual impacts of compassion fatigue through practical actions and programs.
Subject Matter Experts:
Access the On-Demand Video and other Resources in the ECHO Hub Community
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Cultural Safety and Humility: Creating Safe Spaces for People with Life-Limiting Illness (April 27, 2023 12:00pm to 1:00pm ET)
The Cultural Safety and Humility domain is built on a foundation of seeking to understand and address power differentials and inequities in the social, political, and historical context of healthcare. Through self-reflection and consideration of the concepts of racism, discrimination, and prejudice, health care providers can practice relationship-based care.
Join our ECHO learning session to discuss how self-reflection and exploring your biases and cultural influence can help to create respectful and trusting relationships with the patient, their caregivers and the care team. Discover the principles home and community-based palliative programs need to consider to embed cultural safety and humility into care.
Subject Matter Experts:
Access the On-Demand Video and other Resources in the ECHO Hub Community
The CHCA ECHO Hub Community provides resources to reinforce the Learning Session content and share knowledge with your team.
Self-directed microlearning to enhance your knowledge and skills
Evidence-informed practices and research articles to inform your practice
On-demand video of the Learning Session to reinforce your learning experience
Subject Matter Experts’ content slides to share with your team members
Learning sessions and resources helped providers be Prepared to indentify and manage palliative care emergencies in the home setting.
Breathing (Dyspnea): Signs, Symptoms and Responses (April 28, 2022)
The struggle to breath can be terrifying for patients and their caregivers. Health care providers must be aware of high-risk patients and know how to recognize the signs and symptoms of dyspnea, how to plan for care and prepare patients and their caregivers for emergencies. Join our CHCA Palliative Care ECHO Learning Session to discuss strategies to anticipate, identify and manage dyspnea while providing support for the patient and their caregivers to deal with a Breathing emergency at home.
Session Presenters:
Dr. Christine Jones, Palliative Care Physician, Island Health
Katarina Bvoc Berta R.N. CHPCN(C), Spectrum Health Care
Balance (Hypercalcemia): Signs, Symptoms and Responses (June 8, 2022)
A general feeling of being unwell, weakness, loss of appetite, thirst, constipation, nausea and vomiting and delirium are the range of symptoms people receiving palliative supports in the home may experience when blood calcium levels are out of balance. Hypercalcemia (elevated calcium levels) is a common emergency in palliative care. Which patients may be at risk? What can be done to help manage hypercalcemia in the home? This CHCA Palliative Care ECHO session will provide an overview of hypercalcemia, including symptoms and assessments, and invite participants to discuss approaches to treating and supporting patients and their caregivers.
Session Presenters,
Dr. Jennifer Shapiro, MD, CCFP
Dr. Aamir Haq, MD, CCFP (PC)
Blockages (Spinal Cord and SVC): Signs, Symptoms and Responses (Sept. 28, 2022)
Advanced illness can result in painful and distressing blockages within the body’s systems. This ECHO learning session addresses blockages frequently seen with clients receiving home-based palliative care: spinal cord compression and super vena cava obstruction. Participants will learn to recognize the signs and symptoms and how to support patients and their caregivers with appropriate interventions guided by a person’s goals of care.
Presenters:
Dr. Carmen Johnson, MD CFPC, FCFP, Medical Director, Palliative Care Services, Saskatchewan Health Authority
Bleeding (Hemorrhage): Signs, Symptoms and Responsess (Nov. 3, 2022, 12–1pm ET)
Catastrophic bleeding is a palliative care emergency which occurs in patients with cancerous and non-cancerous diagnoses. Join this ECHO session to identify patients at risk for a catastrophic bleed and the measures which can be put in place in the home to help manage bleeding and comfort and prepare patients and their caregivers.
Presenters:
Dr. Cortney Smith MD, CFPC(PC), Colchester East Hants Palliative Care Service, Northern Zone
Gayatre Maharaj, RN, MN, CON(C), CHPCN(C) Clinical Practice Leader for Palliative Care and Oncology – Bayshore HealthCare
Learning sessions and resoures support effective and efficient communication and shared decision-making.
The Palliative Care ECHO Project is a 5-year national initiative that supports the creation of communities of practice, supporting continuous professional development among health care providers across Canada who care for patients with life-limiting illness. Led by Pallium Canada and partners from across Canada, the Project will deliver a continuous learning journey for health care providers to build local capacity to provide a palliative care approach to patients and their families. The Palliative Care ECHO Project is supported by a financial contribution from Health Canada.
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