BACKGROUNDThe high burden of communicable and non-communicabledisease, which includes late presentation of disease,demands palliative care as an essential component ofhealthcare in Uganda. Despite significant palliative caredevelopment, enabling 75% of districts in Uganda to haveaccess to basic palliative care, lack of coverage andgeographical spread limits the availability to approximately10% of the population. Pivotal to the delivery andleadership of palliative care services are nurses; there areapproximately 13 nurses per 10,000 people in comparisonto 1 physician per 10,000 people. Reaching out to thepopulation requiring palliative care requires developmentof existing services which in turn commands competentnurse leadership.

AIMTodevelopaneffectivementorrelationshipbetweenUgandaNurseFellowsandUKpalliativecarehubs

DefinitionofamentorTosupportandfacilitatepersonalandprofessionalgrowththroughareciprocalrelationshipthathasbenefitsforbothsides.

METHODOLOGYThe aim of the Uganda Palliative Care Nurse LeadershipProgramme is to enable 20 nurse leaders, recruited fromdifferent parts of Uganda, to develop leadership skills.Participation in local and national palliative care relatedprojects, in conjunction with 3 one week intensive trainingmodules, forms the essence of the programme.

Providing inpatient, day and outpatient specialist palliativecare services, St. Columba’s Hospice in Edinburgh, UK has astrong commitment to share knowledge and research. Two

lecturers from the Hospice Education and ResearchCentre, each with extensive experience as specialistpalliative care nurses, assumed the role of mentor tomodel clinical and organisational leadership with threeof the nurse leaders. On-site and remote mentoringfrom the UK facilitates a multidimensional andinteractive learning environment.

RESULTSCultural awareness, clinical and organisational leadershipdevelopment and personal growth are tangible benefits forboth mentor and mentee. Relationships have also been builtwith reciprocal support being provided. Projects that havebeen implemented and evaluated include:• Improving community volunteer competence in referringpatients for palliative care (Uganda).

• Planning a handover of patients to an outreach service(Uganda).

• Developing palliative care practice in a communityhospital (Uganda).

• Supporting a point prevalence assessment of palliativecare need in Kalongo Hospital (Uganda).

• Supporting the validation of the Masters in Person-centred Practice: Palliative Care (Edinburgh).

Ongoing work includes support for the national researchproject on the review of the Curriculum for NursePrescribing.

CONCLUSIONSThe multidimensional and interactive experienceencourages reciprocal empowerment, capacity building andlearning for both the mentor and mentee. An evaluation isneeded of the longer term impact of mentoring.

J Logan1, A Ojera2, R Namwanga3, R Katusabe3, L Nabirye4, E Haraldsdottir1, M Leng4,5, L Grant5,J Downing4,5

St Columba’s Hospice Edinburgh Dr Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital Hospice Africa Uganda Makerere University University of Edinburgh