Safe and effective palliative care requires specific competencies for nursing and support staff who work with children and their families in a range of settings. This framework sets out the professional development required by a nursing care workforce spanning 7 levels of role from pre-registration practitioner to nurse consultant in the following 5 topic areas:
Communicating effectively- Multidisciplinary holistic care
- Identify and manage symptoms
- Grief, loss and bereavement
- Leadership and management.
Communicating effectivelyA competency framework describes the range of knowledge, skills and performance levels required of nurses and nursing support workers including nursing associates and assistant practitioners working in a specialty to help them achieve safe, effective and accountable practice. This framework has a broad range of scope to address the variety and complexity in palliative care but does not aim to replicate competencies that are core to all registered nurses, rather focuses on palliative specific care, or general care where there is the need for particular consideration in the context of children’s palliative care.
This framework describes roles and responsibilities at different levels to help with workforce development and the specification of role and job descriptions
- supports career progression in this specialist field, allowing individuals to demonstrate progress and plan for professional development
- informs the provision of continuing professional development opportunities, such as study days or specialist course development and evaluation
- helps promote the development of leadership roles in children’s palliative care, specifically strategic leadership roles • describes 7 levels of role with descriptors.
The framework is intended as a guide to professional development. It facilitates assessment of an individual’s progress and is not intended to be overly prescriptive. The framework can be used to focus self-directed learning and/or as a tool to support learning and development conversations between a supervisor/manager/coach and their individual supervisees.
Initial drafting and review of the competencies was undertaken by members of the RCN children’s and young people’s palliative care community working in a range of care settings across the UK. The contributors then undertook a consensus process to agree the content and level descriptions before review of the final draft framework by the RCN to check alignment with other relevant core competencies.
This is the third edition of this education and career framework and draws on the content contained in the previous 2 editions (2012 and 2018). The RCN would like to thank the following for their valuable contribution in developing this updated edition:
- Anna Oddy, Children’s Complex and Palliative Care Advanced Practitioner, HMR Children’s Services, Northern Care Alliance NHS Group
- Carrie Cannon, MCN Co-ordinator, East of England Children’s Palliative Care Managed Clinical Network, hosted by East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH)
- Elizabeth Gillespie, Team Lead, Community Children’s Nursing Team/iCare, Specialist Children’s Services NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
- Dr Jayne Price, Professor of Children’s Nursing, Kingston University London
- Dr Linda Maynard, Consultant Nurse Children’s Palliative Care, formerly East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH). Nurse Consultant, RAaFT, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Lisa Pullen, Lead Nurse for the South West Children’s Palliative Care Strategic Clinical Network (SW CPC SCN)/Lead Nurse for CYP palliative care, Devon.
- Tracie Lewin-Taylor, Nurse Consultant Paediatric Palliative Care, Shooting Star Children’s Hospices
Acknowledgements are also due to the original and subsequent authors: Rachel Cooke, Helen Jordan, Liz Lyles, Bernadette O’Gorman, Julia Shirtliffe, Jan Sutherland, Brenda Yorsten, Dr Paula Kelly, Jane Houghton, and Katrina McNamara-Goodger; and all those professionals UK-wide who provided feedback throughout the course of this review.
To download a copy RCN Career & Education Framework