A Palliative Approach to Care in the Last 12 Months of Life provides recommendations to nurses and the interprofessional health team who support adults experiencing the last 12 months of a progressive life-limiting illness. This BPG is applicable to all practice settings where persons and families require palliative care and end-of-life care services (e.g. acute care, community care, and long-term care).
A Palliative Approach to Care in the Last 12 Months of Life provides recommendations to nurses and the interprofessional health team who support adults experiencing the last 12 months of a progressive life-limiting illness. This BPG is applicable to all practice settings where persons and families require palliative care and end-of-life care services (e.g. acute care, community care, and long-term care).
As an introduction, we’ve provided summaries of the practice recommendations from the BPG document — but we strongly encourage downloading RNAO’s official PDF.
Health-service organizations should implement an interprofessional model of care for the provision of palliative care and end-of-life care to persons and families.
The interprofessional health team, in collaboration with the person and family, should develop an individualized, person-centred plan of care and re-evaluate the plan of care based on the changing status, needs and preferences of the person.
Nurses should assess the cultural needs and values of persons and families.
Nurses should perform ongoing assessments of persons and families for the following:
As part of a holistic assessment, nurses should assess the spiritual, emotional and existential needs of persons and families, including:
Nurses should address the person’s and family’s palliative care and end-of-life care expectations.
Nurses should provide opportunities for life reflection to persons and families.
Nurses should facilitate access to resources, space and services needed by persons and families for cultural, spiritual and/or religious practices.
For persons who prefer to die at home, health-service organizations should implement high-quality home and community care, which includes:
Health-service organizations should provide education and skills training for nurses and the interprofessional health team related to self-care, including stress management and mitigation of compassion fatigue.
Health-service organizations should provide time and resources for nurses and the interprofessional health team to engage in debriefing.
