RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 44 An evidenced-based heuristics model (or rule of thumb) to improve doctors’ intuition about when patients are imminently dying
JF BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care
JO BMJ Support Palliat Care
FD British Medical Journal Publishing Group
SP 376
OP 376
DO 10.1136/bmjspcare-2018-mariecurie.44
VO 8
IS 3
A1 Nicola White
A1 Priscilla Harries
A1 Adam JL Harris
A1 Victoria Vickerstaff
A1 Philip Lodge
A1 Catherine McGowan
A1 Ollie Minton
A1 Christopher Tomlinson
A1 Adrian Tookman
A1 Fiona Reid
A1 Patrick Stone
YR 2018
UL http://spcare.bmj.com/content/8/3/376.2.abstract
AB Introduction Evidence suggests that the majority of doctors are not very good at identifying when a patient is dying1 however there is little training available to improve this skill. Even experts are unable to articulate how they recognise when a patient is dying other than by saying that ‘I just knew’.2 Aim To understand how expert palliative care doctors recognise a dying person.Methods Rather than relying on ‘years of experience’ as a surrogate measure of expertise we developed a test to identify which doctors really are the prognostic ‘experts’. The prognostic test consisted of 20 real patient case summaries. Participants (palliative care doctors) were asked to predict whether or not they expected the patient to die within the next 3 days. Those who were the most accurate at this task were deemed to be the ‘prognostic experts’ and were invited to complete an additional online judgement task. In this task it was possible to identify which factors were most influential in their prognostic decision-making.Results 19/99 doctors who completed the prognostic test were deemed to be ‘experts’. Of those 14 also completed the additional judgement task. The following factors influenced the experts’ decisions: Cheyne Stokes breathing palliative performance score (PPS) a decline in condition in the previous 24 hours respiratory secretions cyanosis and level of agitation or sedation.Conclusion This novel study presents a simple evidenced-based heuristic (or rule of thumb) to help novices recognise when a patient is imminently dying.References. Neuberger J, Guthrie C, Aaronovitch D. More care less pathway: A review of the Liverpool Care Pathway. Department of Health2013.. Taylor P, Dowding D, Johnson M. Clinical decision making in the recognition of dying: A qualitative interview study. BMC Palliative Care2017;16(1):11.