Mar 15, 2018
This episode features Professor Gunn
Grande (University of Manchester, Manchester, UK). The aim of
this qualitative study was to explore whether and how family
carers are currently supported during patient discharge at end
of life; to assess perceived benefits, acceptability and
feasibility of using The Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool
(CSNAT) Approach in the hospital setting to support carers.
The study identified current barriers to supporting carers at
hospital discharge, which were an organisational focus
on patients’ needs, what practitioners perceived as carers’
often ‘unrealistic expectations’ of end-of-life caregiving at home
and lack of awareness of patients’ end-of-life situation. The
CSNAT Approach was viewed as enabling carer support and addressing
difficulties of discussing the realities of supporting someone at
home towards end of life. Implementation in hospital required
organisational considerations of practitioner workload and
training. To enhance carer support, a two-stage process
of assessment and support (hospital with community follow-up)
was suggested using the CSNAT as a carer-held record to manage the
transition.
This study identifies a novel intervention, which expands the focus
of discharge planning to include assessment of carers’ support
needs at transition, potentially preventing breakdown of care
at home and patient readmissions to hospital.
Full paper available from: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269216318756259?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dpubmed
If you would like to record a podcast about your published (or
accepted) Palliative Medicine paper, please contact Dr Amara Nwosu:
anwosu@liverpool.ac.uk