The Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF) has highlighted the positive impact of the ‘Final Journeys for Paediatric Settings’ training which launched in early 2024. This workshop, accredited by the RCPI and Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, is aimed at all healthcare staff. It was developed by the IHF’s Hospice Friendly Hospitals Programme, which is a partnership between the IHF and HSE that aims to improve palliative, end-of-life and bereavement care in hospitals nationally.
Dr Ciaran Browne, General Manager, HSE Acute Operations, said: “Supporting the parents and family who have lost a child is an important part of the care we provide and work we do in the HSE. We understand that the things we say and do at this time can make a big difference to how parents and families cope with their loss. The HSE is pleased to work in partnership with Irish Hospice Foundation to make available the Paediatric Final Journeys training course so that all our health professionals have the opportunity to learn how to provide the most effective support to parents and families. We encourage all our clinicians working in paediatric services to participate in the training.”
The workshop was developed in collaboration with an expert stakeholder group which included multidisciplinary healthcare professionals from paediatric units and hospitals across the country. According to the IHF, it has received exceptional feedback from participants nationally and is being delivered in 10 hospitals and extended to other sites through a ‘train the trainer’ model.
Multidisciplinary experiences
Ms Maria Love, End-of-Life Care Coordinator, Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), said: “The death of a child or young person has a profound and lasting impact, not only on their family and community, but also on the staff caring for this child. Staff education and training is a key support for delivery of child and family-centred compassionate care before, during and following death. Colleagues in CHI were delighted to offer their expertise and support in the development of this national paediatric programme. Staff have welcomed the opportunity to learn from each other’s multidisciplinary experiences and perspectives in a supportive forum and to familiarise themselves with various resources and structures available to support our children, young people and their families.”
Building on the established Hospice Friendly Hospitals ‘Final Journeys’ workshop for acute hospitals, the paediatric programme was developed in response to a clear national need for tailored training for staff caring for children, young people and their families at end-of-life. The workshop addresses the critical importance of a holistic, child, young person, and family-centred approach to palliative, end-of-life and bereavement care.
Dr Fiona McElligott, Specialist Palliative Care Consultant, CHI, said: “Paediatric Final Journeys is at the core of the Hospice Friendly Hospitals programme, which affords all hospital staff the chance to be comfortable in the space of death and dying; this is practical and essential training for everyone who meets patients and their families in care settings and supports the experience of the child and their family in receipt of end-of-life and palliative care. “
The one-day workshop, aimed at both clinical and non-clinical hospital staff, as well as community healthcare professionals, focuses on fostering a culture of good end-of-life care, enhancing communication skills, and providing supportive care after death, including self-care practices for staff.
In 2024, 156 participants from 10 paediatric settings, including doctors, nurses, porters, medical social workers, music therapists, physiotherapists, and healthcare assistants, hattended the workshop.
Valuable resource
Ms Margaret Ryan, End-of-Life Care Coordinator, St Luke’s General Hospital, Kilkenny, said: “Paediatric Final Journeys is such a valuable resource for all the staff in our hospital. The workshop offers the participants a safe space to share learning. It enhances and validates their own tool kit, and most importantly it gives staff the opportunity to reflect on the end-of-life care we provide to children and their families in our hospital. As a facilitator I found the experience engaging and powerful.”
Key findings from participant feedback include:
- 83 per cent rated the workshop as excellent
- 77 per cent were “extremely likely”, and the remaining 23 per cent were “likely”, to recommend the workshop to a colleague
Ms Siobhan Murphy, Director of Healthcare, IHF, said: “We are delighted with how well our Final Journeys Paediatrics training has been received and the impact it is having. We look forward to introducing further evidence-based improvements to the programme in the future as this targeted training to healthcare staff continues to play a vital role in enhancing end-of-life care for children and young people across the country.”
