Rapid Evaluation of Project Echo at Highland Hospice

Highland Hospice has engaged with Project ECHO in the area of palliative care. ECHO sessions have been carried out with Macmillan cancer nurses, out-of-hours practitioners, care home managers and community pharmacists. The evaluation outlined in this report was commissioned by Highland Hospice in order to understand the impacts of taking part for each of these different professional groups as well as how project ECHO in Highland has so far, and/or has further potential to, enhance the provision of palliative care in the region. This report, therefore, outlines the methods used in the evaluation (interviews and focus groups); describes the results of a thematic analysis of the materials collected and, in the lattersections, gives consideration to the wider implications of project ECHO on access to appropriate, high quality palliative care across remote and rural communities; the delivery of continuing learning and the recruitment and retention of remote and rural healthcare professionals