25 November 2021

By Mike Waddington

On Thursday 25 November I attended – with 120 others – the launch of Palliative Discovery, a new resource for Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNSs) in Palliative Care, hosted by St Christopher’s Hospice.

The project partners are:

Palliative Discovery Project partners.png

CNWL’s Maggie Bissett, Nurse Consultant in Palliative Care, the inspirer and driving force behind the project, spoke about how this was fulfilling a dream she first had at Milton Keynes Bowl in 1995!

Things have moved on  - it’s now called the National Bowl  - and Palliative Discovery is here – providing resources for training, mentorship and learning – that matches the actual reality of CNSs working in Palliative Care.

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And what is it?  It's well described here:

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There are podcasts, films, round tables, events and a library all around aspects of palliative care for instance , someone who may be dying of cancer but who also has schizophrenia.

The site will go live late December or early January and will be free for a period of time.

It was developed after considerable discussion and deliberation; 224 CNSs set out their wishes was summarised as:

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Maggie spoke about the learning approach Palliative Discovery will take; and Palliative Discovery will be a  ‘deep learning’ experience.

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Ivor Williams, from The Helix Centre, (based at Imperial)  designed and developed the concept.

To avoid the most common pitfalls, like:

Avoiding common pitfalls image.png

And I loved this image of what real development is.

Walking through the fogginess of discovery image.png

They have made their way through the fog and it’s shaping up to be an exceptional resource for the highly skilled CNSs working in Palliative Care.

Updates from the St Christopher's Hospice website.