Palliative Nurse Clinicians play an essential role in the delivery of palliative care across BC. Recognizing the importance of supporting nurses in these specialized consultant roles, palliative nurse leaders from Health Authorities across BC met in May 2022 to explore the possibility of a targeted ECHO. A needs assessment survey carried out by BC CPC drew promising feedback, indicating high interest as well as shedding light on the workforce population distribution which range from new in the role to highly experienced.
Since about half of the clinicians were new to the role, the palliative nurse leaders agreed the ECHO format – all teach, all learn –was a perfect fit, and would engage the very experienced clinicians as well. The Palliative Nurse Clinicians ECHO: Leaders, Navigators, Advocates, Educators – Sharing and Building Wisdom, was formed and set to work co-creating themes, topics, sessions and timing.
The ECHO was not only seen as an opportunity to share experience and learn from each other. Participants’ feedback expressed gratefulness for the series and for the rare chance to engage and connect with peers. They also offered numerous topic suggestions, interest in hearing how other areas run their palliative programs, and enjoyed compelling discussions throughout the sessions. The ECHO planning team is excitedly planning for more sessions in the series and looking forward to continuing to support the clinicians’ growth in their service to the palliative population in BC.
Do you have an idea for an ECHO series? ECHOs can be interdisciplinary in design, scope and focus or, as in the case of the Palliative Nurse Clinicians, can be focussed on a specific group of health care providers. We work with a co-creation model to develop series with stakeholders, keeping to the principle that we create with not for. We start by building meaningful relationships with care providers, health organizations, academic institutions, community organizations, and other experts to create sessions suited to your learning needs. Want to explore the learning opportunities of the ECHO model? Contact us at ECHO@bc.cpc.ca.
