Family/Carer assessment and education

  Role of the carer – how this might change over time for different illness trajectories e.g dementia Introduce the concept of carer assessment- Carer assessment examples Use of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) to support carers Who can help e.g. social workers, physiotherapist Carer Education Medications Discharge planning process Self-care Local support for the carer …

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End of life care (Last hours and days of life)

  Identifying a dying patient (diagnosing dying) Differentiate between patients with a malignant vs non-malignant diagnosis Deciding whether to initiate life-sustaining treatments vs active palliative management. Withholding inappropriate life-sustaining treatments is easier than  withdrawing them Local legal requirements (ethical requirements will be covered separately) Psychosocial care Communicating effectively with the family that the patient is …

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Communication Skills

Use some time for lecture, but either show a role play or get the audience to spend some time with the person next to them to practice a scenario for 5 minutes. Lecture: Why is communication important Principles of good communication Basic rules of communication (setting/ preparation/timing etc) Breaking bad news (eg SPIKE model) How …

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