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Many patients report beneficial outcomes after having an advanced care planning (ACP) discussion with their healthcare provider (HCP), according to study results presented in a European Oncology Nursing Society (EONS) session at ESMO Congress 2023.
The palliative care plan document aims to ensure planning and facilitation of a patient’s wishes at the end of life in an effort to give the patient and their family the best possible quality of life. Implementation of the palliative care plan occurred in 2018 in several municipalities in northwestern Norway.
To understand the patient’s perspective about the palliative care plan, this exploratory qualitative study was conducted. Five patients who had participated in an ACP discussion and prepared a palliative plan underwent a semi-structured interview about their experiences and perspectives.
Three main themes arose from the interviews: difficulty with the ACP, interactions with their HCP, and benefits of the ACP.
The patients expressed some difficulty with the ACP discussion. Talking about death is “taboo,” and some patients found it to be painful. Some wished they had been better prepared for the discussion.
Despite the tough experience, the patients felt seen by their HCP cancer coordinator and felt valuable, with some patients expressing a wish that their next of kin was involved with the ACP process.
Overall, making a palliative care plan and thinking of the future gave the patients a sense of security.
The major limitation of this study was its small sample size.
“The results suggest that ACP discussion and a comprehensive plan are shown to benefit cancer patients in a palliative care setting,” concluded Adriana Kolstrøm, MSc, of Norwegian University of Science and Technology and presenter of the study. “Although it can initially give unpleasant feelings, … having a plan was overall perceived as positive,” she added.
Reference
Kolstrøm A. From difficulty to meaning: palliative cancer patients experience on advance care planning conversation and having a palliative plan. Presented at ESMO Congress 2023. October 20-24, 2023. Madrid, Spain. Abstract CN28.
