Abstract

The Choice Campaign Introduction Offering patients and their carers opportunities to have conversations about preferences for care is key to enabling realistic decisions and choices. Feedback from acute trust clinicians shows that holding these conversations can be difficult, resulting in lack of patient and carer involvement, increased bed days at end of life and carer distress in bereavement. Aims • To raise awareness that choice in place of care at end of life is possible • To encourage patients, carers and staff to initiate conversations about end of life care (EoLC) and advance care planning (ACP) • To empower staff to have effective and sensitive discussions with patients and carers • To reduce bed days Method As part of the Choice Campaign we designed a poster fronted by a young cancer patient and featured in local media. Pilots were held on 2 wards with training for staff and support provided to relatives at visiting times. The Posters are next to all clinical areas accompanied by information about ACP and contact details for the EoLC Coordinator with an Out of Hours answer phone for messages. Results Feedback from patients, carers and staff has been positive although some clinicians were initially concerned that the poster would cause distress and raise unrealistic expectations. Since launching the campaign the EoLC Coordinator has reported increasing contacts via the telephone helpline. There has been an increase in the use of the rapid discharge at end of life pathway . Staff are demonstrating an awareness of the importance of ACP. An evaluation will be included in the presentation. Conclusion The poster campaign is the first step in enabling choice in end of life care within the Trust. We plan to consolidate this through an intensive ward based programme of end of life training and outcomes monitored at Board level.