Frailty Plus Cancer Tier 2 and 3

Welcome…

This course is composed of 14 total lessons subdivided into 4 modules about Frailty and best practice management. They do not need to all be done at once and can be done separately in your own time at your convenience.

Each module has a short quiz at the end to test your learning.

Module 1. Specifically describes what frailty is, plus the relevance of frailty in cancer and the impact of frailty on people on cancer journeys.

Module 2. Covers broader Frailty information relevant to people in all pathways (not just cancer), How to identify and stage frailty, Information about MSE FRAIL plus framework and how this can help all of us deliver best practice for both identification of frailty and management of people with frailty.

Module 3. Specifically covers details on best practice for holistic assessment in Frailty-based on the principles of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA).

Including training on tools we have developed in MSE- the FrEDA tool in Systmone. What this is, how to use FrEDA and how FrEDA can be useful to help us identify frailty, efficiently deliver more CGA based holistic assessments, plus as a useful care coordination tool connecting teams – including with some worked case examples at the end.

Plus module 3 additionally covers specific educational information on:

• Polypharmacy and medication issues in Frailty
• Falls risk assessment
• Identifying End of life needs and the principles of Personalised Anticipatory palliative care planning

Module 4. Describes the benefits of adopting Personalised care, embracing shared decision making, the value this can bring and a brief summary overview of the overall course content at the end.

All videos will be accessible for future viewing and referencing once completed.

If working in a shared environment it is recommended that headphones are utilised to avoid any disruption and allow you to fully focus on the course.

To complete all 4 modules within this course is estimated to take around 2 hours to complete in one sitting. However, you may prefer to complete each of the 4 modules separately. You can stop at any completed lesson or module, returning to the course at your convenience – where your current position will be stored – allowing you to progress the course until completed.

Once completed, please feel free to check other courses that are available in both the chosen category and additional areas of health and care.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the changing face of cancer in today’s and tomorrow’s Ageing population.
• Appreciate that more people living with cancer may also be living with Frailty.
• Understand what Frailty is, how it affects people and that it is considered a long-term condition in its own right.
• Understand how cancer disease, the diagnostic process and its treatment can affect Frailty and also how the Frailty condition can also affect how a cancer may present or progress.
• Understand how to identify and stage Frailty using the clinical Frailty score (CFS) and the different ways Frailty can present (the 5 Frailty syndromes).
• Understand that Frailty can get worse in its severity, or it can also get better.
• Understand that promoting best possible outcomes in Frailty (and reducing avoidable harms) requires us to assess the person as a whole individual, provide balanced information that applies to them, to specifically tailor the referral process to their unique needs and their own preferences and to focus more on the things that matter most the person.
• Understand what the FRAIL plus framework is, how it can help us and the 7 ‘high impact actions’ that can benefit people with Frailty to improve their outcomes, quality of life and their experience of care.
• Understand what we mean by personalisation and shared decision making and how that might differ from single condition/disease pathway guideline.

Be aware that we have developed some tools locally within Mid and South Essex that can help record and share valuable information about the person’s level of Frailty, their unique needs and circumstances, and what matters most to them – sharing with all teams that may need to be involved with the person and how this can improve management, coordination of a person’s care and treatment, and outcomes.