Shadowing Experiences for Care Home Nurses in East Kent

Introduction

As part of the NHS England Ageing Well programme, social care nurses from care homes across East Kent were invited to shadow their local acute hospital frailty teams.

The aims of the project were to strengthen understanding of the patient journey, enable nurses to identify transferable learning and enhance collaboration across organisational boundaries.

Method

Participants: Social care nurses from two care homes in East Kent.

Format: One-day shadowing placements alongside the Acute Trust Frailty Team.

Setting: Hospital frailty units and acute care wards.

Feedback: Structured evaluation forms completed post-shadowing.

Results

Ten nurses from two care homes each undertook a day shift. All participants rated the shadowing experience very highly (scores: 4–5 out of 5).

Many had expected to observe medical-led care only and were surprised by the extent of the MDT coordination, communication and patient-centred practice that occurs.

Reported highlights were the opportunity to observe symptom management, the use of frailty assessment tools (e.g., Rockwood Frailty Scale) and complex discharge planning. The social care nurses learned how early identification of frailty and proactive planning can avoid unnecessary admissions, in turn informing their future practice within the care home setting.

Following this experience, they felt more confident and connected to the Frailty Team, in turn expressing increased willingness to engage directly, recognising the team as approachable and supportive partners.

Conclusions and future work

Following the success of this pilot there are now plans to roll the programme out more widely across Kent and for reciprocal shadowing visits for NHS staff to community settings. The social care nurses also identified a need for further training in end-of-life care and have subsequently shadowed local hospice teams. Weekly joint education sessions continue to enhance shared learning and collaboration, providing cross-organisational relationships that are vital to the continuity of patient care.