Course Resources Archive

Available only to students with relevant professional qualification/working within an appropriate clinical setting.

The module will reflect core issues indicated by the national End of Life Care Strategy (2008). Alongside discussion of differing approaches to end of life care, the core elements of assessing planning and reviewing and coordinating the needs of patients and their carers will be covered, identifying successful elements of delivery of high quality care in different settings, and issues surrounding care in the last days of life, and after death.

This module will cover the following topics:

• the End-of-life strategy (2008);
• assessment, planning and review of patients' preferences for care;
• gold standards framework and end of life pathways;
• basic symptom control of common symptoms presenting at the end of life;
• spiritual care;
• support for carers and families;
• information for patients and carers;
• care in the last days of life;
• care after death;
• the current evidence base of practice;
• handling challenging discussions with patients and carers.

A student passing this module should be able to:

1. Critically discuss the evidence base for the management of common symptoms at the end of life
2. Critically discuss the provision of spiritual care at the end of life
3. Critically discuss the needs of families and carers during the period where a client is approaching the end of life
4. Recognise and discuss communication strategies to manage challenging conversations surrounding end of life care
5. Evaluate the provision of multi-professional care at the end of life

The Library Catalogue contains full details of the current reading list for this module. Further details may also be found in the Module Guide.