This article is part of Evidence Based Nursing (EBN) Perspectives. In this series, commentaries from the past 2 years from a specific nursing theme are brought together and highlights are discussed. The topic for this edition is advance care planning and palliative care. From October 2014 to the October 2016 edition, 12 commentaries were published on the chosen topic. Key themes are extrapolated from these commentaries, and the implications for practice and future research are explored. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
A relatives room at University Hospitals of North Midlands has undergone a transformation to help provide relatives of palliative care patients a more comfortable experience during their stay in hospital.
We will not update the guideline at this time.
We will amend the guideline to replace recommendation 1.1.12 about opioid equivalence for transdermal patches with a cross-reference to the more recent guidance in 'Controlled drugs: safe use and management (2016) NICE guideline NG46'.
We will transfer the guideline to the static list because:
No evidence was identified that would impact on the current guidance and no major ongoing research has been identified as due to be published in the near future (that is, within the next 3–5 years).
For the NHS England 'Cancer in London' focus in September, we spoke to Carolyn Doyle - the Lead Nurse for the End of Life service in Basildon, Brentwood and Thurrock. Carolyn has over 20 years of experience in end of life care. She takes us through a day in the life of a Clinical Nurse Specialist and shows how to provide the best care for patients at end of life:
Lwing at HM Prison Norwich is not a conventional setting for healthcare. It is home to 15 prisoners with extra and palliative care needs, including dementia and cancer. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens details for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you requesting.
A legal provision that obliges doctors to honour a patient’s “living will” refusing artificial nutrition and hydration seems to conflict with a Court of Protection practice direction stating that all cases concerning the withdrawal of life sustaining treatment from patients in a vegetative or minimally conscious state should go to court, a senior judge has pointed out.1
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 provides that a valid advance decision to refuse a specified treatment, made when the patient had capacity to make it, should be complied with by doctors … To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
The SAGE & THYME for Advance Care Planning (ACP) workshop has been delivered fifty times around the UK.
Participant feedback (31% GPs) has demonstrated significantly increased confidence in starting an end of life care or advance care planning conversation and in responding to the patient’s concerns. 74% of workshop participants said that they definitely planned to change their practice as a result of the workshop.
The two “Swan Rooms” will build on the work being carried out by The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) to improve End of Life and Bereavement Care at RSH and at the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford.
The introduction of the two rooms – on Wards 25 and 28 at RSH – is part of the Trust’s Swan Scheme, which uses a swan symbol to represent End of Life and Bereavement Care.
Relatives who visit dying patients in Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust’s community hospitals will be offered basic comforts to help them through their stay.
Experience has shown relatives often stayed longer in hospital than they had initially expected when their loved ones were on the point of death. This meant they didn’t have some of the features of everyday life that they would have had at home.
The packs include basic toiletries such as soap, a hair brush, razer, toothbrush and toothpaste, as well as light snacks and a drink.
The packs are being trialled at LPT’s community hospitals, at Coalville, Loughborough, Market Harborough (St Luke’s), Hinckley (Hinckley and Bosworth Community Hospital), Lutterworth (Feilding Palmer), Melton Mowbray, Oakham (Rutland Memorial), and at the two medical inpatient wards at the Evington Centre in Leicester.
Open access. Response to letter re Advanced care planning. We thank Dr Waite for alerting readers to further useful guidance on advanced care planning. While we agree that there is much to be done from the 2009 Royal College of Physicians report, we have chosen to address the aspects of Mrs S's end-of-life care. In particular, we have focused on the synergies between the psychiatric staff and the local hospice.
Open access. Letter. Waterman et al1 perform a useful service in drawing attention to the need for psychiatric in-patient units to develop expertise in terminal care. It is a shame that they have not acknowledged the guidance on advance care planning developed by the Royal College of Physicians2 in conjunction with the Alzheimer's Society, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and other lay and professional groups.......
In July, the government announced a new commitment to improve end of life care in England in response to What’s Important to Me: A Review of Choice in End of Life Care. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
A palliative care charity has devised a new approach to end of life care based on the Human Rights Act. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens details for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you requesting.
Since moving into lecturing I have become interested in discussions about death and dying. Last year at a conference organised by Tracey Lloyd, Wales’s first Macmillan specialist nurse for learning disabilities, I heard lecturer Stuart Todd discussing where people with learning disabilities are when they die. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens details for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you requesting.
Despite informal caregivers' integral role in supporting people affected by disease or disability, economic evaluations often ignore the costs and benefits experienced by this group, especially in the palliative setting. The purpose of this systematic review is to identify preference-based instruments for measuring care-related outcomes and provide guidance on the selection of instrument in palliative care economic evaluations. Open Access Article