Involving families in end of life care

Abstract

The authors outline the benefits of an initiative piloted at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust. Family members of people at the end of their lives are asked to fill in diaries to provide feedback about care, and the information is used to address issues raised. The data and comments are collated, audited and fed back to clinical staff and managers across the trust to benchmark patient-reported outcome measures and quality markers for achieving a 'good death'. The term 'family' refers here to family, friends, carers and significant others who are present at the bedside of patients who are dying in hospital and who are on the Liverpool Care Pathway.

Delirium: assessment and treatment of patients with cancer PART 2

“…It must be acknowledged that,alongside the distress that delirium can cause to the patient and the nursing team trying to manage the symptoms, the family and patient's loved ones also report increased anguish and despair (Morita et al, 2007).The National End of Life Care Strategy (DH, 2008) was initiated to promote high-quality end-of-life care and heighten health professionals' awareness.What it did not specifically do was refer to the needs of the family when symptoms are perceived as distressing,such as pain, nausea and vomiting or delirium (DH, 2009;2011;Smith et al, 2012). Although there may be some issues surrounding diagnosis of terminal delirium or agitation, it continues to be reported as a common complication at the end of life for cancer patients (Morita et al, 2007).…”