1 October 2017
Today, University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust (UHSM) joined with Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CMFT), to form Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT).
We will be updating the web site and all SAGE & THYME documents with the new organisation name in due course.
26 September 2017
The lead developer and head trainer of SAGE & THYME, Michael Connolly, will be presenting a poster on SAGE & THYME at the UK Oncology Nursing Society (UKONS) conference on Friday 10 November.
The conference takes place in the Harrogate Convention Centre and the poster summarises the research evidence on the impact of the SAGE & THYME Foundation Level workshop on staff communication skills.
10 August 2017
The annual SAGE & THYME study day is being held on Thurs 16 November 2017 in Manchester for SAGE & THYME facilitators, key contacts and potential new customers. It will consist of a mix of presentations and discussions on:
11 July 2017
The SAGE & THYME training programme for teaching foundation level communication skills is now 10 years old. Here's how it looks in numbers:
18 May 2017
The SAGE & THYME foundation level workshop has been evaluated by The University of Northampton Institute of Health and Wellbeing, as one component in a series of multi-professional and multi-agency training courses run, to ensure the delivery of high quality services to frail and older people in Northampton.
The Northamptonshire Local Education and Training Council (LETC) received funding from Health Education England to run and evaluate a suite of training courses (including SAGE & THYME) centred around: prevention and enabling self-care; geriatric assessment and personalised care planning; management of long term conditions; and end of life care.
The SAGE & THYME foundation level workshop was delivered by the Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. The University’s report highlighted that the SAGE & THYME (S&T) workshop “engenders a sense that this was a well presented, easy to follow communication course which could be applied to practice easily”.
8 May 2017
Today marks the start of the annual Dying Matters Week, designed to raise awareness about the importance of talking about and planning dying, death and bereavement.
To coincide with this campaign, we have a series of Tweets available @SAGEandTHYME_ that highlight: why advance care planning is important; what clinicians are thinking before they discuss an advance care plan with patients and their carers; what the SAGE & THYME for Advance Care Planning workshop covers; and the outcomes of the training.
2 March 2017
Oxford University Press have recently published the second edition of the 'Oxford Textbook of Communication in Oncology and Palliative Care', which contains a whole chapter on the SAGE & THYME model, written by Michael Connolly (the lead developer of the SAGE & THYME training).
The chapter covers:
13 February 2017
The SAGE & THYME team ran another successful webinar on ‘how to generate senior support for your SAGE & THYME training programme’ last week.
The webinar featured guest speakers: Sue Heatley from Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CMFT) and Vicki McLoughlin from Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust (SRFT). It was presented by Mike Connolly and hosted by Joanne Thomas from the SAGE & THYME team.
Sue and Vicki talked about how they gained senior support and how they have continued to maintain this. Mike then ran through a list of lessons learnt from other organisations and covered some dos and don’ts.
The recording of the webinar is now available here.
5 January 2017
The Nursing Times has just published a review on the benefits and barriers of ensuring patients with life-limiting diseases have advance care planning. Advance care planning allows people to be more aware of that they may die, consider their options, and make choices about their end of life care whilst they still have the capacity to do so. It also increases the use of palliative care services, which focuses on symptom management and can increase quality of life for the patient and their family.
The report highlights that despite the benefits of advance care planning, a recent survey found that only 5% of people have an advance care plan or living will. The barriers to discussing end of life include: the difficulty in initiating conversations; lack of clarity regarding which healthcare professional is responsible; determining when the discussion is needed; the worry about upsetting the patient; and knowing which documents to use to record the patient's wishes.
The review explains that it is important that nurses and doctors have the right training so that they can initiate and manage conversations about advance care planning. The SAGE & THYME for Advance Care Planning and End of Life Care workshop gives clinicians an evidence-based, memorable, structured approach that they can immediately use with their patients.
1 December 2016
Today we are launching our first Twitter campaign to promote the SAGE & THYME model and the SAGE & THYME foundation level workshop. We will be posting daily tweets for about 3 weeks.
Please follow our campaign!
Our Twitter handle is @SAGEandTHYME_. Please retweet our messages and use the following hashtags for comments and questions: #SAGEandTHYME and #SAGEandTHYMEtraining.
22 November 2016
The Nursing Times has published (on 21 Nov) two articles on listening skills for nurses: the first (part 1) describes how the SAGE & THYME model can be used as a 'satellite navigation system' to listen and respond to patients' concerns; and the second (part 2) provides exercises to practice listening skills for revalidation. The articles were written by Mike Connolly, the lead developer of SAGE & THYME.
