Further advanced care planning resources
There are lots of tools and guidance available to help healthcare professionals record and navigate conversations around advanced care planning.
More resources for healthcare professionals
There are many trusted resources from Royal Colleges, NICE and the NHS that may help you with facilitating advanced care planning.
1. Facilitating advance care planning
Advance decisions to refuse treatment and Do not attempt CPR decisions - Information from the NHS on how to facilitate these types of advance care planning.
Lasting Power of Attorney - Government information on how to appoint a Lasting Power of Attorney.
Compassion in dying - Support to help patients prepare for the end of life, and helpful information and resources for healthcare professionals.
Marie Curie resources - Marie Curie has a section for healthcare professionals that lists resources produced by a wide range of organisations, which focus on palliative and end of life care.
‘Talking about dying’ report from the Royal College of Physicians - This provides advice and support for any doctor on holding conversations with patients much earlier after the diagnosis of a progressive or terminal condition.
Gold Standards Framework - A leading provider of accredited end of life care training for frontline health and social care staff in the UK.
NICE guidance - Guide to advance care planning for registered managers of care homes and home care services.
2. End of life guidance
NICE guidance - NICE guidance on managing symptoms (including at the end of life) in the community.
NICE guidance - NICE guidance on end of life care for people with life-limiting conditions.
Guidance around end of life care in an acute care setting - Guidance from the Royal College of Physicians.
3. Communication skills training
Royal College of Nursing and Royal College of Physicians e-learning modules on Breaking bad news.
e-Learning for Health by Health Education England.
VitalTips by VitalTalk (from USA) – Their website has video examples and quick learning guides on talking about serious news or prognosis.
ReSPECT Learning, hosted by Resuscitation Council UK, is a mobile and web app with learning modules on talking about advance care planning.
E4CH (Effective Communication for Healthcare) - Scotland’s NHS communication training programme, including the DoctorsTalk app.
Seeking advice from the wider multi-disciplinary team (MDT)
You may be unsure in which direction the conversation will go, or how big a topic it’s going to be. Perhaps it’s the first time you’ve spoken with your patient about their wishes, or perhaps their circumstances have changed drastically.
You can seek additional advice and guidance from the palliative care team, whether from your Hospital Palliative Care Teams or the patient’s local community palliative care teams.
The presence of a palliative care specialist is further reinforced by NICE recommendations to include them as core members of the haemato-oncology MDT (see 1.3.9).