Providing timely end-of-life care to patients who have COPD

Mulligan, Judy

Judy Mulligan is a respiratory nurse specialist at Barts Health NHS Trust; Anne Heeks was a lead nurse for COPD at North East London Foundation Trust.

Citation Mulligan J, Heeks A (2017) Providing timely end-of-life care to patients who have COPD. Nursing Times; 113: 1, 45–47.

This article has been double-blind peer reviewed

Key points

1 People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease often have unmet palliative care needs

2 Patients need timely referral and access to specialist palliative care services

3 Health professionals need clear criteria to detect patients approaching the end of life

4 Joint working between respiratory and specialist palliative care services can improve outcomes for patients and their families/carers

5 Collaboration between respiratory and palliative care teams can result in up-skilling of staff

Nursing Times 113(1):p 45-47, January 2017.

Abstract

Identifying patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who need specialist palliative care is a challenge because of the unpredictable nature of the disease. This article outlines how respiratory and palliative care teams in an acute trust worked together with community respiratory nurses to help patients with COPD approaching the end of life and their carers to access specialist palliative care services, benefit from advance care planning and avoid hospital admissions.

In this article…

• Why diagnosing end of life in patients with COPD is difficult

• Criteria to help determine which patients need end-of-life care and eliminate barriers to it

• A partnership model between respiratory and palliative care teams