Palliative and End of Life Care: Management of Symptoms in Advanced Disease

Palliative and end of life care is an integral part of any health care professional (HCP) role, wherever they are based (The End of Life Care Strategy (2008) and subsequent guidelines, including Care of Dying Adults in the Last Days of Life (NICE, 2015), One chance to Get it Right (2015) and Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care (2015)).

In order to meet the needs of dying patients, HCPs need to understand the various causes and management of symptoms and also learn how to communicate sensitively about end of life concerns. This enables them to provide high-quality, holistic end of life care, and to know when specialist input is required.

Our module is for HCPs involved with caring for adults who are approaching the end of their life and who also support their families. It will focus on managing symptoms in both malignant and non-malignant diseases in a variety of settings, such as care homes, hospitals, hospices or the community. We'll also discuss the ethical and legal aspects of palliative care.

Delivery

The module will be delivered by specialist palliative care practitioners and educators and will include a communication skills workshop.

Assessment

Students will complete an assignment at the end of this module; an essay in the form of a case study, which demonstrates person-centred and evidence-based end of life care.

Outline content

• Explore the principles and practice of palliative care and current topics
• The nature and impact of advanced life limiting illness on the patient and family
• Clinical symptom management of non-malignant palliative disease – pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches
• Clinical symptom management of malignant palliative disease – pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches.
• Legal and ethical decision making at end of life, including advance care planning
• Advanced communication skills and interprofessional working – enabling open communication with patients, families and professionals
• Cultural dynamics

Learning outcomes

• Critically synthesise the evolution and principles of palliative care and demonstrate their significance and application in a variety of clinical settings
• Critically debate and evaluate the ethical and legal aspects of palliative care and work proactively within the interprofessional team to formulate solutions to complex dilemmas
• Demonstrate initiative and in depth knowledge of symptom management in providing holistic palliative care for patients with life limiting illness
• Apply advanced communication strategies to elicit and respond to problems, concerns and feelings and to tailor complex information to specific needs of patients with life limiting illness and their families
• Competently and effectively act as a change agent and a resource in palliative and end of life care provision in his/her practice area