Elizabeth Nurses On Course To Raise The Bar On Older People’s Care
Today sees the launch of the Elizabeth Nurse Project: the first work based, practical degree course in the care of older people. This ground-breaking project is the start of a new visionary education for staff working in health and social care.
The Elizabeth Care® project is a work based, multi-disciplinary, flexible, modular ground-breaking education programme designed to achieve the very highest standards of care. The university-accredited course creates opportunities for developing a career for health and social care practitioners and is designed around what older people want and need. It will build confidence in health and social care provision and for the wider public.
The Elizabeth Nurse and Practitioner role is the result of more than a decade of professional collaboration between two visionary women from the health and social care professions. Rosemary Hurtley, an occupational therapist and Pat Duff OBE, a former Chief Nurse, have come together to transform the lives of our oldest and most vulnerable citizens.
Course founder Rosemary Hurtley said, “Caring for, and supporting older people is a highly skilled and complex business. It is unbelievable that putting older people’s care on a professional, high status footing has not been done before – it’s a no brainer! Between them my parents spent their last 14 years being cared for in the NHS, community and care home – I have seen it all!”
This inspiration behind the course, Patricia Duff OBE said of the Elizabeth project, “The preparation of nurses in social care is not fit for purpose, lacking opportunity to develop as specialists in care of older people – this different, developmental and aspirational course is about the very personal and diverse needs of older people and is a real innovation.”
Anne Milton, former Health Minister and local MP in Guildford said, “As someone who trained as a nurse and worked in the NHS for 25 years I am incredibly excited about what Rosemary and Pat have achieved in getting this course off the ground. This is about care for older people being recognised for what it should be – a profession in its own right.”
