May 2014 People
9
News
CHARITY PUTS NURSES ON EMAIL The project to enable Marie Curie Nursing Service staff to have a Marie Curie email address is set to save the charity significant sums. The project, which provides email addresses to nearly 2,000 people right across the UK, is nearly complete. All future recruits to the Marie Curie Nursing Service will be expected to use email. Information and Engagement Lead Jess Radcliffe said: “This is an important step that means we can communicate quickly and efficiently with a huge part of our workforce. It’s also saving us a great deal of money – sending material by post to Marie Curie Nurses. Our nurses now get their rotas by email, along with Talking Care, training updates and all-staff emails. It’s also a very good way for them to communicate with their managers and colleagues. “Currently the charity spends around £64,000 on postage, and we have a responsibility to make savings by using email wherever we can.” All nursing staff except those based in offices are using their own IT equipment to access email, with support from Marie Curie for email where necessary.
IT CHALLENGE Closely involved in the project, which was launched just over a year ago, were Policies and Publications Lead Kirsten Hearn and Marie Curie’s regional office administrators. Kirsten said: “The sheer number of
nurses who needed email addresses challenged IT to find a different way of setting up mass accounts. The fact that they are dispersed across the UK means that our regional office administrators have had to find different ways to support them. IT and the administrators, have risen to that challenge.” Resource Manager Emma Lovell heads the Resource team at the Marie Curie Referral Centre in Pontypool – a ninestrong team that handles rostering for the nursing service. She said: “The old process for rostering nurses who were not on email meant that we had to print out all the rotas and send them to 2,000 Marie Curie Nurses. The team here had to stuff all the envelopes, and it could take a few days. “The new email addresses mean that nurses get their rotas immediately and the team here don’t have to stuff envelopes. We can send communications at any time, and if a nurse wants to provide extra availability, they can ring in, and we can send a rota to them at once. Similarly, if there is a problem, it gives us a bit longer to work with the regional teams on the roster. “We can be more flexible and work for the benefit of patients and colleagues rather than having a very rigid system.”
Nearly
2,000
nurses are now on email
FOR MORE INFORMATION Any Marie Curie Nursing Service staff who need an @mariecurie.org.uk email address should contact their line manager.
Call for better assessment of carers’ health New research shows many carers don’t ask for support in time. to think of themselves as a wife or a son Families are not getting the support they rather than a ‘carer’, and so fail to ask need to cope with the overwhelming for help until they are struggling to cope. demands of caring for someone with a We must encourage people to seek help terminal illness, new research involving to look after their relatives, and GPs and Marie Curie has found. nurses should be alert to asking their Understanding the barriers to patients if they have any relatives with a identifying carers of people with advanced serious illness.” illness in primary care: triangulating three data sources highlights that family (and other CARERS’ NEEDS unpaid) carers are not Around 10% of the UK accessing support population are carers Hours of care per week services or vital with many providing provided by carers, who are benefits because end of life care. But the three times more likely to they and healthcare challenges of managing describe their health as professionals do not their caring role “not good” compared recognise or over-look alongside family, friends their needs. and work commitments with non-carers The work was carried out mean that they often find by Marie Curie Cancer Care, it difficult to manage their own the University of Edinburgh Primary needs and can lose their own sense Palliative Care Research Group, NHS of identity. Lothian and Voices of Carers “While caring for someone with a Across Lothian. terminal illness is challenging, we must Professor Scott Murray, University not forget the needs of carers who of Edinburgh Primary Palliative Care provide this support every day,” Professor Research Group, said: “Carers often prefer Murray said.
“Healthcare professionals must have a clearer role in identifying carers as well as encouraging carers to identify themselves. Crucially, the support carers need must be continually assessed to ensure they are receiving the right care, at the right time, particularly as the patient’s condition deteriorates and the emotional and physical demands on the carer increase.” The researchers also found that carers of terminally ill people may find support and help suddenly withdrawn following the death of the person they are caring for, leaving them isolated and vulnerable. The study, funded by the Dimbleby Marie Curie Cancer Care Research Fund, has been published ahead of the conclusion of the Scottish Government’s consultation on proposed legislation to support carers and young carers.
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MORE SUPPORT FOR FAMILIES: One in 10 people in the UK are carers
FOR MORE INFORMATION Read the full paper here: biomedcentral.com/1471-2296/15/48