LJMU delivers advanced care planning training to NHS staff

LJMU is delivering specialist training to dozens of community matrons and nurses across the Liverpool City Region to ensure patients are able to shape their own treatment and care.

The university’s School of Nursing, Public and Allied Health has partnered with Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust on a programme of learning around advanced care planning.

Now in its second year, the initiative has given 40 healthcare professionals expert led teaching and hands on learning to support patients in exploring their wishes, priorities and expectations for future treatment in a safe, person centred way.

These conversations are particularly vital for people who are frail or elderly, individuals with learning disabilities, or those nearing end of life care. 

Supportive and respectful

By supporting patients to articulate what matters most to them, health and social care teams can ensure treatment is tailored, respectful and aligned with their values. Plans often include preferred medical interventions, decisions about treatment refusal and key legal considerations such as capacity assessments, best interest processes and do not resuscitate orders. 

This year, the LJMU team added a session addressing advanced care planning in patients with cardiac conditions such as heart failure, where early conversations regarding treatment trajectories are imperative to ensure autonomy and preserve shared decision-making with relatives and clinical teams. 

Embedding high quality, compassionate care

Mersey Care’s community matrons and specialist nurses are central to initiating these conversations and coordinating plans across multidisciplinary teams from GPs and district nurses to community physiotherapists, care home managers and community geriatricians.

Following the success of last year’s launch, this continued partnership is helping to embed high quality, compassionate future care conversations across the region, ensuring patients and families feel supported, informed and empowered.

It is critical that patients and their families are fully involved in a shared decision-making process with their healthcare professionals, ensuring that the care delivered truly reflects their needs and wishes.

I am proud that the School of Nursing, Public and Allied Health is working in partnership with Mersey Care to ensure that people across the Liverpool City Region continue to receive this level of compassionate, person centred care.

Professor Ian Jones, Director of the School of Nursing, Public and Allied Health

Jenny Hurst, Chief Nurse at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Advanced care planning is one of the most meaningful conversations we can have with the patients and service users we support. It gives individuals and their families the space to talk openly about what matters most to them, making sure that their future or end of life care is respectful, personalised and aligned with their needs and wishes.

“Our continued partnership with LJMU is helping our community matrons and nurses with the skills and confidence to lead these conversations and coordinate the plans with other health professionals with compassion and clarity. I’m incredibly proud of the difference this training is making, particularly for those who are frail, living with long term conditions or approaching the end of their life.”