P-270 Implementing person-centred practice in a hospice

Person-centred practice is increasingly being adopted within health care and aims to facilitate true partnership working between service users and health professionals (Ewing, Austin, Diffin & Grande, 2015)). There is an increasing body of evidence that person-centred practice can improve health outcomes, quality of care, and patient experience (Collins, 2014). However, person-centeredness can only happen if there is an appropriate culture (McCormack et al., 2008). In partnership with Queen Margaret’s University, Edinburgh, Marie Curie committed to the development of Person-Centred cultures throughout their caring services. In 2016 the Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool embarked on this journey using McCormack and McCance (2010) Person-Centred Framework for Practice. A multidisciplinary steering group was established. Values clarification, and action learning sets led to the development of a Person-Centred vision for the hospice. This collaborative vision formed the basis of evaluative work which benchmarked our culture in relation to the vision. Alongside the framework, a variety of tools were used including observational work, patients, families and staff ‘stories’ and data relating to staff turnover, sickness rates, incidents and surveys. Data collection took just over a year. Themes emerging from the analysis of data indicated we had some work to do to shift our culture to meet the vision we were striving for. Our action plan is now being implemented. This will be discussed in detail within the presentation. One of our key findings is the interplay of meaningful relationships between staff, patients and families. This is complex and we are addressing this through action learning sets, focussing on our core values and beliefs, team working with respect, kindness and compassion. Enabling staff at all levels to work in a more person-centred way will, we hope, increase job satisfaction, enable them to flourish in their roles and significantly impact on patient experience and quality of care we deliver.