Acute Medicine | Palliative care | Communicating the plan of management and care

Communicating the plan of management and care
Session overview
Description
This session discusses the different aspects that need consideration in effectively communicating the management plan to the patient and family/carers, and to all professionals and services involved in the patient’s care.

This session was reviewed by Richard Kitchen and last updated in December 2020.

Learning objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• recognise the need to ensure that the plan for symptom management and care has been clearly communicated to the patient, family and carers as appropriate
• explain the advantages of clear, timely communication of the symptom management plan to relevant professionals and services
• describe some of the difficulties that can arise if the plan for symptom management and care has not been communicated well

Prerequisites
Before commencing this session you should complete:

• General approach to assessment of symptoms (215-0401)
• Agreeing a plan of management and care (215-0402)

In the previous session, Agreeing a plan of management and care, you learned about the importance of offering patients the opportunity to be involved in the decision-making process for agreeing a plan of symptom management and care.

Even when a plan to manage symptoms has been agreed, it is important to review it to ensure that it has been clearly communicated to the patient and/or their family/carer.

This session discusses the different aspects that need considering in effectively communicating the management plan to patients and their loved ones, and to the range of professionals and services involved in the patient's care.