Succession planning for Palliative care agencies: growing leaders before a key nurse leaves
Many palliative teams rest on one or two people whom families trust. If either leaves, the team and the funders feel it at once.
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Share your requirementsWhy succession planning matters in palliative care agencies
In a small palliative agency the founder or the senior nurse holds the relationships with doctors, families and funders. She knows who to call at night and which family needs extra care. If she falls ill or moves away, no one else knows these things. Staff are uncertain and families lose trust.
Succession planning here means finding who could take on each key role, sharing what the key person knows, and growing people over time. It starts with a list of critical roles and the risk of losing each. It gives chosen people tasks and training, and writes down contacts and routines.
How to set it up
1. List the roles the team cannot lose
Senior nurse, team leader, volunteer coordinator, doctor liaison, accounts. For each, ask what would stop if the person left tomorrow.
2. Name possible successors
For each role, choose one or two people who could grow into it, and ask them privately whether they want to. Note what each needs to learn.
3. Share what the key person knows
Write down contacts, family histories shared with consent, routines for night calls and funder requirements. Keep it where the team can find it.
4. Give stretch tasks
Let a successor lead a meeting, run the rota for a month or visit a funder with the senior. Review how it went and give feedback.
5. Review each year
Check the list of roles and successors, note changes and tell people about their growth plans. Link this to the competency and talent work if you use it.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- List the three people whose absence would hurt most, and what they alone know.
- Ask a senior nurse which colleague could cover her for a month.
- Check where key contacts and routines are written down.
- Ask potential successors whether they would want the role.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach succession planning in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
Start now with small steps. Give stretch tasks, share more of the senior's knowledge and consider recruiting someone with leadership experience. Plan temporary cover in case of sudden absence.
Usually yes, in private and with care, and ask whether they want the path. Make no promises you cannot keep. Silence can cause people to look elsewhere.
Enough for a capable person to run a night, find key contacts and understand each family's wishes within what may be shared. Avoid long manuals. Short notes that are kept current are more useful.