A guest blog from Tim Walsh, Children’s Nursing student at London South Bank University and one of the #150Leaders. The blog aims to present Tim’s personal project to develop and improve clinical education and practice on children’s end of life care for undergraduate nurses. For this initiative, Tim has been nominated for a Student Nursing Times Award.
As a mature student, I knew that from the start of my child nursing career I would be someone that would thrive and be further motivated by being busy and developing on my current knowledge.
My previous career experiences within education and my NHS job during the pandemic highlighted my feelings of wanting a career with children, reigniting my passion for wanting to be able to make a real difference to the lives of children and families and overall leading me to apply for the BSc Child Nursing course at London South Bank University (LSBU).
The start of my final year as a student child nurse was then where I sought further student leadership opportunities alongside my degree, with the idea that I still wanted to make a real difference to child and family lives, but I wanted to start while I was still a student. I was successful with becoming the Cohort Rep for my year group, I joined the Health Education England’s (HEE) Nursing & Midwifery Student Council and was then invited by HEE to become the UK’s nursing student representation for the Quality Committee.
I then further discovered the success of my application of becoming part of the Council of Deans Student Leadership Programme. This programme allowed me to develop my leadership skills and ultimately provided a platform to which I would use to implement a positive change out in practice for nursing students that would improve patient and family care. My Student Leadership Project is still ongoing, however it is largely based on my recommendation for developing and improving clinical education and practice on child end of life care for undergraduate nurses, which Great Ormond Street Hospital has accepted as a educational project idea and has been fully supportive of since.
The project aims are:
- To support Undergraduate Child Nurses (2nd and 3rd years) in developing a clinical education, both theoretically and practically, in regards to End of Life Care.
- To improve patient and family care within Great Ormond Street Hospital, including those specifically involved with a child at End of Life.
- To highlight Palliative and End of Life Care as a career option to Undergraduate Student Child Nurses.
The project idea was developed because I recognised that as Student Child Nurses, we receive very little clinical education and training in end-of-life Care, both at university and within trusts. This project, within Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), will be the start of developing an undergraduate clinical education on end-of-life care, both theoretically and practically. The project will be in line with the Pan London E-Pad competencies, set out by the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC), directly aimed at undergraduate nurses in 2nd and 3rd year of clinical practice.
It is hoped that through this project, using a collaborative Multidisciplinary approach, that a permanent teaching session will be created, explaining the legal and practical requirements related to the care of a child’s body after an expected and unexpected death. The teaching session should also include parent/ guardian and family care, and how student and staff wellbeing is cared for and managed. Alongside this teaching will also include an End-of-Life workbook to review and evaluate student knowledge. All areas of this project will be delivered as mandatory through the support of the Student Practice Facilitators.
By doing this project it is hoped that End of Life Care is improved for those patients and families receiving it, and that undergraduate student child nurses are more empowered and confident in supporting the delivery of End-of-Life Care. This project will also aid 2nd and 3rd year Undergraduates with completing and signing off competencies surrounding palliative and End of Life Care. Lastly, through this project it will also promote and highlight Palliative and End of Life Care as a future career option that undergraduate student nurses may wish to pursue, supporting England’s shortage of child nurses being skilled in palliative and End of Life Care.
The project is currently within its initial stages, collecting evidence-based practice research and resources to facilitate a presentation and the development of the workbook. It is hoped that this project will be functional during 2023. My expectations for the future are that my project idea creates a lasting impact on future undergraduate nurses within my trust, creating confident newly qualified nurses on palliative/ child end of life care.
My project has not gone unnoticed, being recognised by both my trust and by my university as a positive contribution to Child Nursing. As a result, I have been nominated by them both for a Student Nursing Times Award and I am hopeful to be shortlisted.