References
Advanced care planning in end-of-life care: the key role of ambulance services
Abstract
Overview
Effective communication and coordination between individual care providers is vitally important to ensure that patients' wishes are respected throughout their care and when they die, as well as that families and loved ones are supported following the patient's death. Ambulance services play an increasingly key role in end-of-life care and this is especially true in terms of transfer of the dying patient (
After completing this module, the paramedic will be able to:
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You have just started your afternoon shift and Ambulance Control (AC) assigns you to a transfer from the local hospital to a home setting. They inform you that it's a rapid discharge transfer for an end-of-life patient. You arrive at the palliative care ward and are met by the senior sister in charge who informs you that the patient has lung cancer, wishes to die at home and that this transfer is part of their advanced care plan. The patient called Benjamin is weak and cachectic, however smiles when you enter his room on the ward. You explain that you and your colleague are here to take him home, in respect of his wishes.
All documentation is present and you receive a full handover from the nursing team prior to leaving the ward, including where you should take Benjamin if he dies en-route to his home address. You are provided with a contact number for the ward should this occur.
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