Using the “mum test” in PEOLC

“How people die remains in the memory of those who live on”, the words of Dame Cicely Saunders, nurse, doctor, social worker, writer and founder of the hospice movement.

Words that are as relevant today as ever, reminding us of the lasting impact of care towards and at the end of life.

Sarah says, "As a nurse, I’ve always approached the way I care using the “mum test”, the level of care that I would want for me or mine, and I’ve approached communication in the same way. This is what draws me to Care Opinion as an enabler to engage with patients on a level that opens a meaningful dialogue that can evidence true impact and quality improvement".

As a Trust we are already established with Care Opinion as an exemplar trust, and were successful in our application to participate in the 2 year Palliative and End of Life project extending our feedback use through a 2 year community of practice programme, augmenting our approach to feedback, learning and quality improvement.

So, where are we 10 months on….?

We’ve have great engagement with the Specialist Palliative Care team across our sites and our amazing Sharon, Patient Experience Manager has developed our “direct ask” cards to enable the team to capture feedback alongside the patient and family. We now need to embed this as a fundamental part of the care we provide.

In addition, this team have used Dying Matters week in May to further promote the direct ask cards to increase feedback opportunities in a way that supports people to share their experiences.

We’ve buddied up with the super North Tees & Hartlepool Specialist Palliative Care Team and they have shared a great poster which we have adapted as a local visual prompt.

What we have learnt is that we need to build on small successes to ensure that they are business as usual before pushing forward and, that it takes time to gain confidence in our ability to respond in a meaningful way that supports learning and improvement.

Our next steps will be to include Care Opinion in our organisational End of Life strategy

and to ensure that it is included in our new literature and information materials.

We will be working with our Patient Advice and Liaison service and our Bereavement Team to explore whether there are missed opportunities to facilitate Palliative and End of Life feedback and we hope to catch up again soon with our “buddies” as this really helps with sustaining energy through quality improvement.

Sarah Ward, Macmillan Lead Nurse Cancer, Palliative & EOL Care

&

Sharon Kidd, Patient Experience Manager

United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust