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EOL Essentials Project News

EDITION 54 - February 2021

What's New in the Project?

People at the end-of-life may fear the thought of uncontrolled pain, the unknown, or lacking control, adding sorrow to their last months or years of life.

In our upcoming modules on psychosocial and existential wellbeing, we have topics to help health care professionals provide more encompassing care to a patient at the end-of-life, including topics on:

Being a burden, dependency and lack of autonomy
Awareness and open discussions of death
Who is particularly vulnerable at the end-of-life
Anxiety
Depression

Please forward this email to any colleagues who would be particularly interested in these new modules, or if you have been forwarded this newsletter, please subscribe for further updates.

Module Highlight: Responding to Concerns

The experiences of individual patients at the end-of-life are varied, but commonly include an increase in the intensity of symptoms and an uncertainty of what lies ahead.

Kindness, respect and interest in a patient’s life story are important factors in end-of-life care, along with clear communication and shared-decision making.

Learn more in the 'Responding to Concerns' module which includes:

Communicating serious news
Options for responding to concerns - your concern, your teams, the patient, or family
Seeking support for yourself in your workplace
Preparation for emotional conversations and conflict

Learn about Responding to Concerns

Latest Evidence

The Surprise Question (Would I be surprised if this patient were to die within the next 12 months?) is widely used to identify palliative patients. To improve timely identification of palliative care needs, this study proposes an additional Surprise Question (Would I be surprised if this patient is still alive after 12 months?) if the original Surprise Question is answered with “no.” The combination of the two questions is called the Double Surprise Question.

Ermers DJ, Kuip EJ, Veldhoven C, et al. Timely identification of patients in need of palliative care using the Double Surprise Question: A prospective study on outpatients with cancer. Palliative Medicine. January 2021.
Patient participation is a key foundation of advance care planning, however, a patient may be left out of end-of-life (EOL) care discussions. This study investigates patients’ participation rate in the discussion of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation/Do-Not-Attempt-Resuscitation orders, and in the discussion that the patient is at their EOL stage.

Abe, A., Kobayashi, M., Kohno, T. et al. Patient participation and associated factors in the discussions on do-not-attempt-resuscitation and end-of-life disclosure: a retrospective chart review study. BMC Palliat Care 20, 6 (2021)

My Toolkit

With new updated resources, the free End-of-Life Essentials 'My Toolkit' can help you maintain your knowledge about end-of-life care and facilitate discussion and engagement at work. It includes:

The similarities and differences in new and current work practices
Assessing readiness of the workplace environment and culture for new processes
Developing realistic and achievable goals.

Download 'My Toolkit' today

For your Notice Board

Each month we feature a fact sheet or poster to print. This month is a poster from our upcoming modules.

Next Newsletter
March 2021

Please forward this newsletter to others who may be interested, subscribe to the newsletter or contact us on eolessentials@flinders.edu.au for any queries.

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End-of-Life Essentials is based on the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care’s National Consensus Statement: Essential elements for safe and high-quality end-of-life care, and the Commission provides ongoing advice to the project.

End-of-Life Essentials is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health

Copyright © 2021 End-of-Life Essentials, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
End-of-Life Essentials project
Flinders University
Palliative & Supportive Services
GPO Box 2100
ADELAIDE SA 5001

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