Early October News
Welcome to our early(ish) October newsletter.
This month we meet Linda Tarm, member of the LKN Programme Team, hear how the Peer Support Service is getting on, and seek your thoughts on Health Equity pledges. We also learn more about the Universal Care Plan (UCP) and share how you can find out more.
Meet the Team
Linda Tarm joined the LKN in 2021 as a Multi-professional lead, bringing renal dietetic expertise and experience to the Team. She is now co-Chair and Project Manger for the CKD Prevention Workstream and Project Manager for Supportive Care and Advanced Kidney Care Workstreams.
Linda has just been appointed as a UKKA Trustee as MPT Honorary Membership and Policy Secretary- congratulations Linda! We know you will be an excellent addition to their team, helping grow membership and shaping policy.
We hear from Linda about why she loves being an AHP (allied health professional), and what her advice is to anyone considering a non-traditional career path.
Linda Tarm
Multi-professional lead and co-Chair and Project Manger for the CKD Prevention Workstream and Project Manager for Supportive Care and Advanced Kidney Care Workstreams.
What do you love about being an AHP? The opportunity to make a positive impact on peoples’ lives. I love that my role allows me to continuously learn and grow and the challenges motivate me. Collaborating with a diverse team, building strong and meaningful relationships, is enjoyable and rewarding. I’m proud to be a dietitian.
What skills do being an AHP give you that allow you to fulfil your role in the LKN? Being a Principal Renal Dietitian has equipped me with a wide range of skills and attributes that enables me to effectively fulfil my role as a Clinical Co-Chair.
What do you love about working with the LKN? The LKN fosters a collaborative working environment. I appreciate the opportunity to work with a multidisciplinary team as part of larger CKD health initiatives. This means I can be integral to work with the potential to improve kidney care of entire communities and populations.
What’s your advice to other APN’s considering taking on a non-traditional role?
- Seize every opportunity for personal growth.
- Recognise the transferable skills you’ve gained in your clinical role. They are highly valued in different settings.
- Moving to a non-traditional role may come with a learning curve. Be ready to embrace this and seek support where necessary.
- Set realistic expectations, be adaptable and enjoy the journey
Peer Support Update
Back in June, we heard from Deniz Hasan Peer Support Co-ordintator for London. Deniz and Eleri have been working hard to fully estabilish their service since then, as they outline below.
“We now have trained peer supporters in London who are keen to help patients and carers who would like to speak to someone with lived experience of kidney disease. We have a diverse group in terms of age, ethnic background, where they live in London and the kidney treatments they have experienced. We will try to match people up from the same Unit but may find a better match from another Unit. The peer supporters will offer a telephone conversation so it will not involve any travelling for the patient.
Our ambition is for every kidney patient in London to be offered peer support, not just those who appear to be struggling or who have asked for help. We know people may not be ready to speak to a peer supporter when the service is first offered but might be ready when they have had time to think about it, so please don’t offer just once !”
If you have a patient or carer who would like to speak to someone who has experience of kidney disease in London, then please contact Deniz Hasan [email protected].
Health Equity Pledges
The London Kidney Network Health Equity group wants to help everyone involved in kidney care in London to become invested in identifying and reducing health inequalities in kidney care at a personal level. One way of doing this is to encourage all members of the network to make pledges.
The Health Equity Group are asking us all to consider making an equity pledge. An equity pledge is a statement of how we will change our behaviour on a day-to-day basis to identify and reduce inequalities in kidney care in London. Gavin, co-Chair of the Group explains more.
“We hope that by making your equity pledge, you will have words to live by as we all work to reduce the inequalities in kidney care that affect our patients.
For example, my personal equity pledge would be ‘To always make sure I use a translator for each and every consultation where English is not the first language of the patient in front of me.’ Your pledge might be around getting better with collecting data on ethnicity coding or, encouraging your team to complete the LKN health equity module, or promoting cultural sensitive dietary changes in CKD – the list is endless!”
To help you make a pledge and to then do what you can to keep it, we’re thinking about this that might make a difference. To help direct our thinking, please take a minute to answer this short questionnaire which contains 4 questions: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/healthequitypledges/
If you’d like to learn more about kidney health inequality, you can find the Health Equity e-module here https://learninghub.kingshealthpartners.org/course/healthinequalitiesinkidneycare You will need to register to use it, but it is free to everyone, regardless of place or type of work.
Universal Care Plan
What is the UCP
The Universal Care Plan is an NHS service that enables every Londoner to have their care and support wishes digitally shared with healthcare professionals across the capital.
A care plan is created following a conversation between a healthcare professional (such as a doctor or nurse) and the person in their care. Throughout the conversation, the healthcare professional will listen, understand and make notes on:
- What is important to the person in their day-to-day life
- Their preferences or wishes about their care
- What support they need and who is best placed to provide this
- Information about others who may be involved in that person’s care, such as relatives
The care plan is then created following this conversation using the Universal Care Plan. As soon as information is saved on the plan, it is visible to all health and care services who use it. This includes the London Ambulance Service, 111 and Out of Hours GP services who may see the person in an emergency.
Later in 2024, the Universal Care Plan (UCP) will undergo a significant evolution. It will be transformed into a personalised care and support plan, with patient preferences and wishes at the fore.
When UCP was procured in 2021, those using it said that they wanted a care plan that could be used in collaboration with patients who may have other health needs, such as long-term conditions, and may not necessarily be receiving end-of-life care or palliative care.
The new template has been expanded to include ‘global information’ which relates to the person regardless of their health condition. This includes:
- What matters to them – Incorporates the PRSB’s ‘About Me’ standard; daily life and interests, likes and dislikes, goals, concerns and general wellbeing.
- Communication and accessibility requirements – how the person communicates, how to help them communicate e.g. technology or methods, information formats; supportive adjustments to help them access healthcare e.g. help with phobias, adaptations to appointments or their healthcare environment.
- Additional personal information – including gender identity and preferred pronouns, information about their school
- Living arrangements – additional information about their living situation to support discharge planning.
- Daily activities and support needs – Frailty score, activities where support is required: domestic, personal care, managing finances, managing medication, mobility needs, equipment; falls risk; driving, and keeping safe in the community.
- Symptom management plan – Allows the user to input tiers of management (crisis, day to day and prevention).
- Medical devices – Information about managing catheters, stomas, feeding equipment, respiratory devices, cardiac, intravenous access.
You can find full details of the changes and rationale behind them on the UCP website here https://ucp.onelondon.online/expanding-the-universal-care-plan/
And if you’d like to know more generally about the UCP click here https://ucp.onelondon.online/about/
Extra help
To help users and front-line clinical staff prepare, they will be hosting webinars on
- Wednesday 27 November, 12-1pm
- Thursday 5 December 4-5pm
These sessions will cover the upcoming changes to the UCP, explain their impact on current users, and provide an opportunity to address any questions. To register use these links
https://events.teams.
https://events.teams.
Lastly:
14 October is National AHP Day. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the Allied Health Professionals in the London Kidney Network for the huge amount of work you do for kidney patients in London. Thank you!
