Latest news

19 March 2015

An electronic version of a paper, on improving communication with palliative care cancer patients using the SAGE & THYME foundation level workshop, has been published by Jane Griffiths, Charlotte Wlison, Gail Ewing, Michael Connolly and Gunn Grande in the European Journal of Oncology Nursing.

The paper highlights how attending the workshop, improved the district nurses' knowledge about communication behaviours helpful to patients; and that this was sustained two months after training.   The district nurses also reported an increase in their confidence in communication skills, which was sustained post-workshop.  In addition, the findings demonstrate that it can be difficult to control the environment when visitng a patient at home.

17 February 2015

Macmillan Cancer Support have produced a report on how to support and empower staff to deliver a good experience of care for patients.  This includes ensuring that staff have the right training.

The report gives an example of how the SAGE & THYME foundation level workshop has been successfully run by Macmillan Cancer Support in London in partnership with a number of NHS Trusts: the feedback from University College London Hospital "has been excellent".

To read the report click here.

20 November 2014

The 4th annual SAGE & THYME UK conference was held yesterday.  It was attended by over 60 SAGE & THYME facilitators from around the UK, to hear the latest developments on SAGE & THYME, and to network and make contacts with facilitators from other organisations.

The conference was opened by Felicity Goodey CBE DL, Chair of University Hospitals of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust and former BBC journalist, who said that she had attended a few courses in her time, but had never attended one that was "more patient focussed, more effective and better run", than the SAGE & THYME foundation level workshop.

18 September 2014

The 4th SAGE & THYME UK annual conference programme has now been released.

Visit the News page to download the programme.

To book a place please contact us - places are £65 per person.

31 July 2014

The details of the 2014 SAGE & THYME UK conference, which will take place on Wed 19 November 2014 in Manchester, have now been released.

As always, the conference will consist of a mixture of presentations and parallel workshops involving a number of speakers from organisations running the SAGE & THYME foundation level workshops in addition to the SAGE & THYME Team.

The conference costs £65 per person - for more information click here.

30 June 2014

Following the independent review of the Liverpool Care Pathway, the government has published 'One Chance to Get It Right'.

This report summarises the system wide response to the review.  It highlights five new priorities of care and mentions SAGE & THYME as a communication skills training development resource.

For more information, click here.

5 June 2014

Mandatory communication skills training is the second recommendation in the 'National care of the dying audit for hospitals England' published last month by the Royal College of Physicians and the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool. 

The SAGE & THYME Foundation Level workshop is suitable for providing training to all types and levels of staff in general communication skills; and the SAGE & THYME for Advance Care Planning and End of Life Care workshop is appropriate for more senior staff who discuss advance care planning with patients and their relatives/carers.

6 May 2014

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust presented the findings of their evaluation of the SAGE & THYME Foundation Level workshop, at UK Kidney Week in Glasgow on 2 May.  

24 March 2014

The second paper reporting on the evaluation of the SAGE & THYME Foundation Level workshop has now been published in the Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions.

5 March 2014

SAGE & THYME training was represented on the ‘Manchester: health is our business’ stand at the annual NHS Expo, which took place in Manchester on 3 and 4 March.

The conference covered a range of NHS issues including care and compassion and the 6Cs initiative being promoted by NHS England.

The 6Cs are: care, compassion, competence, communication, commitment and courage.  They were originally developed for nurses, but NHS England now hopes to expand the approach to the whole of the NHS workforce.  The SAGE & THYME Foundation level workshop addresses four of the 6Cs.

25 February 2014

The first SAGE & THYME for advance care planning (ACP) workshop, open to anyone involved in advance care planning in the UK, has been scheduled for Friday 23 May 2014 at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester.

6 January 2014

The SAGE & THYME Team are now back to work after the Christmas break.  We would like to wish all of our SAGE & THYME facilitators and their associates a happy New Year.