AN EVESHAM care home was among those to benefit after St Richard’s Hospice launched a free virtual education network to offer support and share knowledge with care homes in the county to help them during the coronavirus crisis.
The education team at the Worcester-based hospice already works with care homes to support them with training and guidance around providing the best possible end of life care.
In the current pandemic, they have stepped up their support and will use ECHO telementoring technology – standing for ‘Extension of Community Healthcare Outcomes,’ a not-for-profit movement to improve care by collaborative problem solving.
The ECHO sessions will cover a number of topics and how they relate to COVID-19 with 17 participants from different care homes already signed up for the course.
Recent feedback on virtual training include from Lazin Ndlovu from Austen Court Care Home in Evesham.
” I would like to thank you for the video call group meeting, it was useful and a huge help for me as a Care Home Manager because at times it can feel like you are all alone,” she said.
Donna Jones, head of education and learning at St Richard’s said, “Through this ‘tele-mentoring’ model education sessions are delivered from our hub at the hospice and participants attend remotely from any location, which in this time of lockdown is invaluable.
“As a result, staff are able to access from home or from work, using either tablets, laptops, a desk top with a web-cam, or if they prefer, a personal smartphone.”
Ms Jones added: “With the help of this technology we have already been able to deliver COVID-19 specific training to 45 staff within care homes to support their residents through the illness.
“Our last informal Zoom meeting had 30 attendees from care homes across the county.
“We were also able to invite other health professionals such as the Infection Control Lead from the Clinical Commissioning Group, Emma Snead, to be able to support conversations around Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 testing. “
