EOLEssentials Project News

Welcome to the May edition of End-of-Life Essentials news. This newsletter aims to keep you informed with what’s happening in the project and end-of-life care. 

• What’s New in the Project?

• Sector News

• Latest Evidence

• For Your Notice Board

• Next Newsletter

What's New in the Project?

Development of videos for elearning modules

We are working with Flinders Creations to develop the video content for our e-learning modules. This video will be a central part of the content for the modules.

Release of the End-of-Life Essentials website

The new website will be released next week. Keep an eye out for it. You will be automatically redirected from the current interim webpages to the new project specific website.

We will continue to add content to the website as the new learning modules are developed and we will add content to the Implementation Toolkit pages prior to the release of the Toolkit in October 2016.

Sector News

Chronic Respiratory Diseases

The AIHW Chronic respiratory conditions webpage provides high-level information on the prevalence of various chronic respiratory conditions. In 2013, there were 12,465 deaths where the underlying cause was a respiratory condition (acute or chronic). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of death in Australia and internationally, and asthma death rates in Australia are high in comparison with many other countries.

My Wishes, My Plan, Advance Care Planning

Australians can share ACP information in your My Health Record where it will be available to healthcare providers at the time and place it is needed. My Health Record now has the capacity for people to upload their ACP documents to the system.

WA End-of-Life Framework

The WA Department of Health has developed an End-of-Life Framework to guide end-of-life care. It provides direction for best-practice care across a patient’s end-of-life trajectory, commencing when they are diagnosed with a life-limiting illness or their death is expected.

Latest Evidence

Each month we will feature a few articles that cover topics relevant to end-of-life care in hospitals:

• Jors K, Seibel K, Bardenheuer H, Buchheidt D, Mayer-Steinacker R, Viehrig M, et al. Education in end-of-life care: What do experienced professionals find important? J Cancer Educ. 2016 Jun;31(2):272-8. doi: 10.1007/s13187-015-0811-6.
  This study looked at what experienced clinicians felt was important in end-of-life education. They suggested that format (i.e. structure and method of teaching) and content (i.e. knowledge and know-how required for care of the dying) were important. Both professional groups most often wished for more practical experiences with dying patients (e.g. internships at hospices). Physicians and nurses also wanted more basic information on palliative care, increased skills training in communication, and knowledge of how to appropriately care for patients' caregivers.
• White B, Willmott L, Close E, Shepherd N, Gallois C, Parker MH, et al. What does "futility" mean? An empirical study of doctors' perceptions. Med J Aust. 2016 May 2;204(8):318.
  This Australian study looked at doctors’ conceptions of futility focused on the quality and prospect of patient benefit. Although there was broad consensus about what futility means, it had variable meanings in practice given the individual patient context.
• Soares DD, Nunes CM, Gomes B. Effectiveness of emergency department based palliative care for adults with advanced disease: A systematic review. J Palliat Med. 2016 Apr 26. [Epub ahead of print]
  The limitations of the research was a key finding in this study of the effectiveness of ED-based PC interventions on hospital admissions (primary outcome), length of stay (LOS), symptoms, quality of life, use of other health care services, and PC referrals for adults with advanced disease.

For Your Notice Board

Each month we will feature a fact sheet, a poster or other resources that you can print and share on your notice board or in your tea room.

The Australian Commission into Safety and Quality in Health Care has produced an Infographic: Essential elements for safe and high-quality end-of-life care. (161kb pdf) This is a great summary of the elements in the National Consensus Statement.

Next Newsletter

June 2016

The End-of-Life Essentials News is distributed on the first Wednesday of each month. You are also welcome to forward the newsletter to others that may be interested or follow this link to subscribe to the newsletter. To share something, please email eolessentials@flinders.edu.au