About the End of Life Care programme
The elearning programme End of Life Care for All (e-ELCA) aims to enhance the training and education of the health and social care workforce so that well-informed high quality care can be delivered by confident and competent staff and volunteers to support people wherever they happen to be.
e-ELCA sessions have been highlighted as a resource to help with implementation of the NICE Guidelines on improving care for people who are in their last days of life (Care of Dying Adults in the Last Days of Life).
There are over 160 highly interactive sessions which are grouped into nine modules:
- Advance Care Planning
- Assessment
- Communications Skills
- Symptom Management
- Social Care
- Bereavement
- Spirituality
- Integrating Learning
- Specialist Content
Click the button below to view/download a document detailing all the sessions available.
Tools to support learning
There are a number of tools to help you make best use of the sessions:
- Making the most of e-ELCA provides an overview of factors that can help organisations maximise the effectiveness of using e-ELCA
- Five ways to motivate and engage learners is a practical guide for managers, as well as trainers, highlighting best practice when using elearning
- Learning paths have been developed for specific staff groups and defined curricula (see below)
- A training needs analysis and signposting to sessions which support learning to meet the requirements of the Priorities for Care of the Dying Person (see below)
For further details about accessing e-ELCA see the How to access section below.
Priorities for Care of the Dying Person
The care of people that are dying and support for their families is something that almost all health and social care staff contribute to, consider of great importance in their role and can get great satisfaction from. However, there is a high level of concern that patients and their families are not being cared for with sufficient dignity, compassion or expertise and that there is much that can be improved in their experience in the last days of their life.
e-ELCA is a resource that can provide a great deal of support for the development of staff. It is however unlikely to be the only training element that staff will require.
A small number of sessions have been identified as ‘core’ and ‘additional’ for a range of staff groups, which focus specifically on care in the last few days and hours of life. Sessions in e-ELCA have also been mapped to the nine high-level learning objectives in the One Chance to Get it Right report developed by the Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People in 2014. Click the button below to view/download.
Priorities for Care of the Dying Person >
Assess your own training needs
A session which helps you assess your own training needs has also been developed. This will help you to identify your areas of strength and those you need to focus on. Click the button below to view/download.
Core and additional e-ELCA sessions for specific staff groups have been defined. Please select from the following:
- Doctors
- Nurses
- Allied health professionals
- Social care – managers
- Social care workers
- Healthcare managers
- Healthcare administrators
This video may help new users to e-ELCA, and educators, learn what may be useful to integrate into their teaching about the Priorities for Care of the Dying Person to support a blended learning approach.
Learning paths
Learning paths help to guide users in choosing sessions of most relevance to their learning. The learning path is a starting point and should be modified to suit your own needs and prior experience.
Please select from the following learning paths:
-
Professions
Professions
- e-ELCA Learning Path for Registered Nurses Working in Care Homes
- e-ELCA Learning Path for Registered Nurses in Acute Hospitals Caring for Patients in the Last Days of Life (CORE SESSIONS)
- e-ELCA Learning Path for Registered Nurses in Acute Hospitals Caring for Patients in the Last Days of Life (ADDITIONAL SESSIONS)
- e-ELCA Learning Path for Registered Nurses in Acute Hospitals Caring for Patients in the Last Days of Life (CORE SESSIONS)
- e-ELCA Learning Path for Band 5 Nurses Working in Specialist Palliative Care Services (CORE SESSIONS)
- e-ELCA Learning Path for Band 5 Nurses Working in Specialist Palliative Care Services (ADDITIONAL SESSIONS)
- e-ELCA Learning Path for Carers Working in Care Homes
- e-ELCA Learning Path for Medical Students
- e-ELCA Learning Path: for Internal Medicine Trainees – Years 1 and 2
- e-ELCA Learning Path: for Internal Medicine Trainees – Year 3
- e-ELCA Learning Path for ALL Ambulance Service Teams
- e-ELCA Learning Path for Ambulance Service Teams BAND 4 AND ABOVE
- e-ELCA Learning Path End of Life and Palliative Care as Associated with Paramedic Practice
- e-ELCA Learning Path for Clerical Staff Working in Palliative Care and End of Life Care Services (CORE SESSIONS)
- e-ELCA Learning Path for Clerical Staff Working in Palliative Care and End of Life Care Services (ADDITIONAL SESSIONS)
- e-ELCA Learning Path for Out of Hours Urgent Care Practitioners (CORE SESSIONS)
- e-ELCA Learning Path for Out of Hours Urgent Care Practitioners (ADDITIONAL SESSIONS)
- e-ELCA Learning Path for General Practitioners with an Interest in Palliative and End-of-Life Care
- eELCA Learning path for Foundation doctors
- Skills for Care Learning path for care workers supporting a person near the end of life
- Learning path for healthcare support workers working with people near the end of life
-
Conditions
- e-ELCA Heart Failure Learning Path
- e-ELCA Renal Learning Path
- e-ELCA Motor Neurone Disease Learning Path
- e-ELCA COVID-19: Resources to support staff with difficult conversations and end of life care
- e-ELCA Learning Path: Specialist Palliative Care
- Skills for Care learning path for care workers supporting a person near the end of life
-
Organisations
Organisations
- e-ELCA Learning Path: Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon, and Wiltshire Group
- e-ELCA Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Learning Path
- e-ELCA East of England Learning Path: Introduction of End of Life Care to Group B staff
- e-ELCA HRCH Learning Path for all clinical healthcare professionals
- e-ELCA HRCH Learning Path for registered nurses and AHPs
- e-ELCA Yorkshire & Humber Learning Path: elearning Taster Sessions for Social Care Staff
- e-ELCA Yorkshire & Humber Learning Path: elearning Taster Sessions for Health & Social Care Staff Working in Palliative & End of Life Care Services
- e-ELCA Yorkshire & Humber Learning Path: elearning Taster Sessions for Health Care Staff
- e-ELCA ULHT Learning Path: Core plus learning for all doctors YEAR 1
- e-ELCA ULHT Learning Path: Core plus learning for all doctors YEAR 2
- e-ELCA ULHT Learning Path: Core plus learning for all doctors YEAR 3
- e-ELCA ULHT Learning Path: Core plus learning for all doctors YEAR 4
- e-ELCA ULHT Learning Path: Core plus learning for all doctors YEAR 5
- e-ELCA ULHT Learning Path: Core plus learning for all other healthcare staff YEAR 1
- e-ELCA ULHT Learning Path: Core plus learning for all other healthcare staff YEAR 2
- e-ELCA ULHT Learning Path: Core plus learning for all other healthcare staff YEAR 3
- Skills for Care Learning path for care workers supporting a person near the end of life
- Learning path for healthcare support workers working with people near the end of life
Executive group
Patricia Howe
Programme Manager, HEE elearning for healthcare
Claire Beattie
Project Manager, HEE elearning for healthcare
Dr Richard Kitchen
Association for Palliative Medicine (APM) Clinical Lead for e-ELCA
Dr Iain Lawrie
President, Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland
Project team
Dr Richard Kitchen
Clinical LeadClaire Beattie
Project Manager, HEE elearning for healthcare,
Project team (2009 to 2017)
Professor Bee Wee
Clinical Lead (2009-2013)
Claire Henry
National Programme Director, National End of Life Care Programme (2010-2013)
Professor Christina Faull
Clinical Lead (2013-2017)
Victoria Winlow
Assistant Programme Manager, HEE elearning for healthcare (2010-2017)
Glenis Freeman
Independent Consultant (2010-2017)
Original module editors
| Module | Editor |
| Communication Skills |
Esther Waterhouse and Andrew Thorns |
| Assessment |
Jayne Chidgey-Clark |
| Bereavement |
Karen Henry |
| Spirituality |
Margaret Holloway |
| Symptom Management |
Martine Meyer |
| Integrating Learning |
Martine Meyer, Andrew Thorns and Jo Wilson |
| Advance Care Planning |
Shaun Kinghorn |
| Social Care |
Tes Smith |
How to access
Free sessions
A number of e-ELCA elearning sessions are freely available to all, with no registration required. Should you require a record of your activity or a certificate of completion, you will need to register.
In order to access the End of Life Care programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.
To view the End of Life Care programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.
NHS healthcare staff in England
The End of Life Care programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this elearning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.
Further details are available here.
Not an NHS organisation?
If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.
To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.
Access for care home or hospice staff
To register for the End of Life Care programme, select the ‘Register’ button in the top right hand corner of the page. Select the option ‘I am a care home or hospice worker’ then enter your care home / hospice name or postcode and select it from the options available in the drop down list. Finally enter your care home / hospice registration code and select ‘Register’. You may need to see your employer to get this code.
If your employer does not have a code, then they need to contact the elfh Support Team. The Support Team can either give the employer the registration code or arrange a bulk upload of all staff.
Detailed instructions on how to gain access are available here.
Access for social care professionals
Access to elfh content is available to all social care professionals in England whose employers are registered with the Skills for Care Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set (ASC-WDS). Every employer providing ASC-WDS workforce information to Skills for Care has been given a user registration code for their staff. This code enables you to self-register for access to e-ELCA. Please contact your employer for more details about the registration code.
For information about registering your organisation with the NMDS-SC your employer should access: https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/About/Contact-us/Contact-details.aspx#NMDSSC or contact the Skills for Care Support Service via email: ascwds-support@skillsforcare.org.uk or telephone: 0113 241 0969.
If you have a registration code, you can register by clicking here.
Registering large numbers of users
If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the End of Life Care programme, please contact elfh directly.
Organisations wishing to use their own LMS
For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.
How to license
In the event that you do not qualify for free access to the End of Life Care programme, you are able to license access through eIntegrity, a community-interest company established for this purpose.
You can check whether or not you qualify for free access by clicking on the ‘Register’ button above.
For more information on the licensing options available for the End of Life Care programme, please visit the eIntegrity website.
More information
Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.