Use of the Palliative Performance Scale version 2 in obtaining palliative care consults

Abstract

Nurses are in the best position to advocate for the patient and the management of their chronic illness. Educating nurses on the philosophy of palliative care and improving their comfort level in assessing the need for palliative care will overcome barriers to consultation.

Facilitating Palliative Care Referrals in the Intensive Care Unit

“…for the survey tool was .80. Fedel and colleagues 47 Nurses were asked to prompt a discussion with the multidisciplinary team regarding a possible palliative care consult if a patient had a PPSv2 score of 60 or less.…”

“…To measure the effectiveness of the intervention, the authors used the 8-item survey tool developed by Fedel et al 47 The first 5 questions used a Likert-type scale to measure nurses' comfort in identifying patients who were appropriate for palliative care and nurses' comfort in requesting a palliative care consultation. The last 3 questions were true/false and assessed the nurses' knowledge of palliative care.…”

“…Although their study was underpowered, findings suggest that the use of the PPSv2 improved the nurses' knowledge of palliative care issues and their comfort in identifying the need for palliative care. 47 …”

“…46 Another screening tool that has been used to identify patients who might benefit from palliative care is the Palliative Performance Scale, version 2 (PPSv2). 47,48 Whereas some of the other tools are diagnosis driven and medically oriented, use of this tool is clearly within the domain of nursing practice. The PPSv2 is a reliable and valid tool that has been widely used to determine eligibility and to guide treatment for hospice patients by all members of the interdisciplinary team.…”

“…Fedel et al 47 used the PPSv2 in a pretest/posttest design on an acute care (non-ICU) unit of a tertiary care hospital to examine 3 issues: (a) the impact of education on nurses' knowledge of palliative care, (b) the comfort level of nurses in addressing palliative care issues, and (c) the comfort level of nurses requesting a palliative care consultation. Although their study was underpowered, findings suggest that the use of the PPSv2 improved the nurses' knowledge of palliative care issues and their comfort in identifying the need for palliative care.…”