Cavendish Homecare embrace St. Christopher’s Lantern Model

At Cavendish Homecare we pride ourselves on delivering the best possible care to all our clients and patients. Currently with increased demands for palliative and end of life care, we are evolving and developing these essential services. We are working with St. Christopher’s hospice and piloting a new nursing model of palliative and end of life care, the “Lantern Model”.

The Lantern Model is a brand new international contemporary model of nurse-led care that our specialist nurse teams are now trialling, this innovative pilot project evidences best practices within our specialist nursing teams. In particular, the Lantern Model values the vital skills that nurses show during end-of-life care, and this holistic approach encourages and develops the skilled role of Nurses and Carers whilst they provide for people who are dying or bereaved.

What is the Lantern Model?

The Lantern Model is dedicated to palliative and end-of-life care, which was founded by St Christopher’s Hospice Joint Chief Executive, Heather Richardson, and Marie Cooper, Project Lead for Celebrating Palliative Care Nursing in 2020. This model has also seen support from the Florence Nightingale Foundation and the Burdett Trust for Nursing.

The lantern flower in its habitat is resilient, beautiful, and adaptive, quite like Nurses and Carers in today’s world, the most important element in our health landscape.

Nurses and Carers are constantly changing their means to meet the emergent needs of their patients and those close to them. This proposes increased investment in their recruitment, development, and retention.

 The Lantern Model is composed of 7 elements, which include:

1. Outcomes
2. Context of care
3. Processes of nursing care
4. Support by the wider MDT team
5. Personal
6. Organisational conditions
7. Key tenets that shape and guide the care provided.

Why is the Lantern Model so important?

This new model is the first change in palliative and end-of-life thinking for over thirty years, it highlights and articulates the input of Nurses and is contemporary in its approach. The Lantern Model aims to improve nursing care and provides a multi-faceted view on all aspects of palliative/end-of-life treatment by working with these patients in all care settings.­­­­­

This model fits all, including care staff, newly qualified nurses or those with the most advanced skills. Relating to all, it is a platform that can be built on, for all Nurses and organisations to incorporate and develop so that patients and families continue to receive the very best holistic care at the end of life. Using the Lantern Model, nurses confidently provide the most suitable professional care possible.

Cavendish Homecare celebrates the tremendous efforts of all Nurses and Carers within our team and across the world. We are delighted to have this model as part of our ethos, and we look forward to seeing where this innovation will inspire and lead the future of nursing.