fundamental and human rights
�.� national preventive mechanism against torture
left their rooms. This arrangement was not safe
for the residents of the nursing home, since the
distance between the two buildings was approximately 200 metres. The situation in the other
nursing home could have prevented the night
nurse from leaving immediately. This matter had
also been addressed in connection with the visit
made by the Ombudsman in 2007. The Deputy-Ombudsman noted that night-time care must
be organised in a manner that does not leave
residents without supervision. The Deputy-Ombudsman requested the city to notify him of the
measures it had taken (659/2018).
According to the city, the night nurse does not
have to leave the unit during the shift anymore, because night care in the other nursing home will be
arranged differently from 1 May 2018.
to resolve who was responsible for organising the
training (3367/2018).
The report by the city that purchased the care
service noted that, according to the outsourced
service agreement, the service provider shall have
quantitatively and structurally sufficient staff for
the service being provided. The unit personnel must
have the expertise, competence and motivation required by their duties. This also applies to competence in end-of-life care. The service provider must
see to the further training of its personnel. The service provide shall thus arrange training for its personnel, and the city will provide further training if
necessary. According to the report, end-of-life care
training will be provided to the nursing home’s personnel in late 2018. The key themes of end-of-life
care will be reviewed through training materials,
discussions and the sharing of experiences.
End-of-life care
The nursing home strived to provide high-quality
end-of-life care. However, the nurses expressed
a wish for further training in the area. The Deputy-Ombudsman requested the municipality to
report on its measures in the matter (3290/2018).
The municipality reported that its end-of-life
care guidelines had been reviewed in the group
homes. In addition, the group home nurse who is a
member of the municipal end-of-life care team participated in dedicated end-of-life care training. The
written feedback on the training was reviewed in
the group home. When the unit has a resident in
need of end-of-life care, the staff will hold regular
and in-depth discussions on the resident’s situation,
the measures required, how to care for and support
the resident, and how to take the resident’s next of
kin into account and support them.
The NPM discovered no significant shortcomings
in the field of end-of-life care in the visited units
in 2018. According to the nurses, some units were
prepared to hire additional employees for the duration of end-of-life care, and the nursing staff felt
sufficiently trained in end-of-life care (657, 659,
1212 and 2218/2018). The organisation of end-of-life
care in some units gave the Deputy-Ombudsman
cause to issue the following opinions.
One nursing home stated that the number of
nursing staff was not increased for the duration
of end-of-life care. In addition, the representative
of the company providing the nursing home services stated that the nurses could freshen up their
end-of-life care skills by watching a video on the
company’s intranet. In the opinion of the Deputy-Ombudsman, appropriate and competent endof-life care is the fundamental right of every older
person, and every nurse must be familiar with it.
Therefore, she suggested considering ways to provide the staff with further training in end-of-life
care. The Deputy-Ombudsman did not consider it
sufficient that nurses who felt that they required
additional instruction on the issue would watch
the instructions independently on the intranet.
In addition, the city and service provider needed
106
Outdoor time
The importance of spending time outdoors every
day for the quality of care was emphasised in connection with the visits made to the service units
for older people. Providing sufficient time outside
is a part of caring for the residents’ basic needs
and, thus, respecting their human dignity. The
Deputy-Ombudsman has recommended including
outdoor time in the residents’ care and service
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents