Mother of Mercy Hospice maintains an active training programme for its staff and uses medical and caregiver meetings to present cases and discuss problems. Improving counselling skills is addressed at least bi-annually by Kara Counselling, while nursing and laboratory workshops with a focus on HIV/AIDS, TB and STIs are held with either the Zambian National AIDS committee and/or the Ministry of Health.
Volunteer home based caregivers are trained by the Archdiocese in pastoral services, basic assessing skills, basic medical skills and counselling. Monthly meetings have been held with the informal Zambian Hospice Association to discuss experiences and hospice issues.
The Guardian Angel School is in the process of establishing an Open Community School Association with the aim of sharing ideas and resources. It has also initiated a creative learning workshop with help from visiting teachers from UK.
Two counsellors have received VCT and child counselling training by Kara Counselling. Two social workers have undergone courses at the University of Zambia and Social Welfare. The director, Alison Hill is certified in HIV/AIDS counselling, STI counselling and reproductive health. In-house training on monitoring ARV treatments is informal.
Jon Hospice comes under the Kara Counselling umbrella and benefits from the many counselling training programmes. There are 5 trained counsellors/social workers at the hospice. The clinical officer is the only palliative care trained member of staff. All hospice staff are trained by Kara Counselling, as are most of the home based care groups in the area. The home based care groups are not trained in any palliative care skills however and tend to focus on faith support rather than attending to the physical needs of the patient. 16 Increasingly the hospice staff are relied upon to provide palliative care training within the Kara Counselling courses. A training centre is planned at Jon Hospice to cater for the demand in palliative care training.
Ranchhod House. All counsellors are trained by Kara Counselling. Kabwe Hospice plans to implement basic skills training including drip monitoring, for caregivers of patients.
Our Lady’s Hospice. At the time of establishing this service 3 nurses were sent for palliative care training at a hospice in Dublin run by the Sisters of Charity. Those nurses currently hold positions as matron, clinic nurse and home based care nurse. Training of primary caregivers was conducted by one of these nurses. The training of volunteers for the outreach programme is AIDS focused, with information on hygiene, nursing care, bereavement, simple communication skills and opportunistic infections.
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