Why do we need a network like this?
To build understanding across care settings:
The health care context is highly complex. Even within the same organisation staff may have limited knowledge of who is doing what and where. If the delivery of health care is to become more joined up, then staff from across sectors and settings need an easy way to tell one another what they’re doing and what they need or can offer by way of information, expertise and services.
To facilitate the transfer of knowledge into care practice:
There is a wealth of knowledge available on best practice and care standards, including toolkits and practical resources. However, this availability does not automatically lead to changes in care practice. Why not? There is a growing recognition of the challenge that practice development presents. Individuals need support to develop the knowledge and skills they need to meet that challenge.
To support communities within care settings to learn and develop practice:
How do you support staff to develop a culture where learning is valued and where current practice is open to challenge and change? In My Home Life, Owen et al (p 65) argue that education and training need to be “relationship-centred and concerned with developing the whole of the care home workforce on site, as part of overall quality improvement initiatives, rather than external bite-size educational inputs for personal and professional enhancement only.”
They write this in relation to care homes, but the argument could equally be made for any care setting. Where the community is engaged in an inquiry process through which people (including residents or patients and their loved ones) can understand the need for change and the power they have to make things change, there is a better chance that things will change. Those responsible for care delivery need accessible, flexible and relevant resources to help them to lead and manage change.
To bring the experience of older people to the heart of care delivery:
In a task-focussed care culture, the task is the goal rather than the means to an end. The action of completing a fluid chart, for example, is divorced from the bigger picture in which that fluid chart helps to support someone’s health and well-being. Given the pressures we are all under it can be easy to objectify the person on the receiving end of our care. ‘Care’ takes place in the context of a relationship between two people: how do we ensure that the experience of both is respected and validated? In particular, how do we bring the experience of older people to the heart of care delivery?
