Project Team: Professor Linda Ross (USW), Professor Wilfred Mcsherry (Staffordshire University, Visiting Professor USW), Rene van Leeuwen (Viaa University Netherlands), Josephine Attard (University of Malta), Tove Giske (VID University Bergen Norway), Tormod Kleiven (VID University Oslo Norway). Participants.
Stakeholders include:
- England NHS England, Public Health England.
- Norway Norwegian Nursing Association.
- Netherlands Danish Ethical Board, Dutch Higher Education Board.
- Republic of Malta Nursing & Midwifery Board.
- UK RCN, NHS Chaplaincy.
- Wales Welsh Government (Chief Nursing Officer), Health Education Improvement
- Wales (HEIW), Social Care Wales, Executive Nurse Directors (ENDs), Council of
- Deans Wales (CoD), students.
Funded by: Erasmus+ Key Action 2 Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education.
The aim of the EPICC Project (December 2016-August 2019) was to establish best practice in spiritual care education across Europe. 31 nurse/midwifery educators from 21 European countries and over 60 stakeholders co-produced six important novel outputs:
1) Agreed definitions of ‘spirituality’ and ‘spiritual care’ for nurse/midwifery education for Europe.
2) Four core spiritual care competencies (‘Spiritual Care Education Standard’), from the 54 identified by Attard et al 2019, for assessing student nurses/midwives
3) Gold Standard Matrix for Spiritual Care Education outlining factors helping/hindering spiritual care competency development from the pilot and longitudinal studies above.
4) Toolkit with activities to support student teaching and learning.
5) Network and 6) Website for sharing best practice.
Impact in Wales
The EPICC Standard has been adopted across all pre-registration nursing programmes from September 2020.
Nursing students will be assessed through the Once for Wales 2020 All Wales Practice Assessment Document and Ongoing Record of Achievement for Pre-registration Nursing Programmes.
EPICC outputs are helping to preparing student assessors.
The EPICC Standard is a mandatory requirement of the new midwifery curricula and of the 2022 Health Education Improvement Wales commissioned pre-registration contracts for paramedicine, dietetics, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, podiatry, diagnostic radiography and therapeutic radiotherapy and oncology, operating department practitioners, physicians associates and all PTP healthcare science programmes.
A tool from the EPICC Toolkit (2Q-SAM, Ross & Mcsherry 2018) is helping the South Wales Organ Donation Team to provide more compassionate person-centred care and to manage extremely challenging conversations around end of life, including organ donation and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The EPICC outputs are helping to better prepare pre and post registration nursing, midwifery and allied health students for person-centred spiritual care at universities in Austria, Netherlands, Poland, Norway, Malta, Portugal, Kenya. Nurse/midwifery educators from six continents are using the outputs in a variety of ways.
We are liaising with the RCN, an EPICC stakeholder, about updating the 2011 RCN spiritual care resources in light of EPICC’s evidence.
Impact on policy
The EPICC outputs are included in the following policies:
The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust 2019 Spiritual Care Policy Document adopts the EPICC Standard
The UK Board of Healthcare Chaplains (2020) Spiritual Care Competences for Healthcare Chaplains p33 adopts the EPICC Standard for non-specialist spiritual care givers, specifically nurses.
The European Association of Palliative Care White Paper for the education of multidisciplinary palliative care practitioners across Europe promotes 2Q-SAM (Ross & Mcsherry 2018) from the EPICC Toolkit as ‘a really effective tool enabling people to provide spiritual care’.
Outputs
Ross L, Holt J, Moene Kuven B, Ørskov B, Paal P. Educational context, evidence and exploration of professional fields of nursing and midwifery. In McSherry W, Boughey A, Attard J (Eds) Enhancing Nurses’ and Midwives’ Competence in Providing Spiritual Care through Innovative Education and Compassionate Care. Springer, Switzerland. Coming out 2021.
van Leeuwen R, Attard J, Ross L, Boughey A, Giske T, Kleiven T, McSherry W (2020) The development of a European consensus based Standard in spiritual care competencies for undergraduate nurses and midwives. Journal of Advanced Nursing.
McSherry W (2020) with Ross L as significant contributor. (2020) Enhancing and advancing spiritual care in nursing and midwifery practice. Florence Nightingale series of RCN Fellow articles. Nursing Standard.
McSherry W, Ross L, Attard J, van Leeuwen R, Giske T, Kleiven T, Boughey A and the EPICC Network. (2020) Preparing undergraduate nurses and midwives for spiritual care: some developments in education over the last decade. Journal for the Study of Spirituality.
Mcsherry W, Ross L, Attard J, van Leeuwen R, Giske T, Kleiven T, Boughey A and the EPICC Network. (2020) Preparing undergraduate nurses and midwives for spiritual care: Some developments in European education over the last decade 2020
Ross L, Holt J, Moene Kuven B, Ørskov B, Paal P. Educational context, evidence and exploration of professional fields of nursing and midwifery. In McSherry W, Boughey A, Attard J (Eds) Enhancing Nurses’ and Midwives’ Competence in Providing Spiritual Care through Innovative Education and Compassionate Care. Springer, Switzerland. Coming out 2021
van Leeuwen R, Attard J, Ross L, Boughey A, Giske T, Kleiven T, McSherry W (2020) The development of a European consensus based Standard in spiritual care competencies for undergraduate nurses and midwives. Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Mcsherry W and Ross L (2020) Enhancing and advancing spiritual care in nursing and midwifery practice. Florence Nightingale series of RCN Fellow articles. Nursing Standard.
McSherry W, Ross L, Attard J, van Leeuwen R, Giske T, Kleiven T, Boughey A and the EPICC Network. (2020) Preparing undergraduate nurses and midwives for spiritual care: some developments in education over the last decade. Journal for the Study of Spirituality.
Jennifer Trueland (2018) Patients’ spiritual needs: the conversations that can help. Nursing Standard. 33, 9, 74-77.
Interview by Jennifer Sprinks for Nursing Standard on the omission of spirituality from the NMC Code. Sprinks J (2015) What about nursing’s ‘fourth dimension’? Nursing Standard, 29(44), pp 22-23
Ross L, Mcsherry W. (2018). The power of two simple questions. Nursing Standard. 33, 9, 78-80
Ross L, Mcsherry W. (2018). Two questions that ensure person-centred spiritual care. Nursing Standard.