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Equipping patients for a time of helplessness: an educational intervention
1School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia. simon@nunet.com.au
Objectives:
Quantify rates of awareness about, and ownership of, End-of-Life Planning (ELP) instruments. Examine whether this rate is increased by brief education during routine team care. Measure the time required by this exercise.
Design:
Quality Improvement Activity.
Setting:
General Practice on Mid-North Coast, New South Wales.
Participants:
Forty-two consecutive, consenting elderly patients undertaking a Home Health Assessment.
Main Outcome Measures:
This study assessed rates of ELP instruments at baseline, at 2 weeks, at 2 months and at 2 years following the provision and discussion of a fact sheet while measuring the clinicians' time required.
Results:
This education exercise increased the number of patients with ELP instruments from one to ten (24%). On average it took 5.6 min of nursing time and 3.9 min for the GP.
Conclusions:
Brief education during Home Health Assessments may empower patients to prepare for a scenario where they lost competency to make fully informed decisions. This may alleviate patient's fears about causing problems between those close to them and having treatments against their wishes.
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