Support from healthcare professionals in empowering family carers to discuss advance care planning: A population-based survey

Sage Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care

This episode features Isabel Vandenbogaerde (End-of-life Care Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) & Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium).

What is already known about the topic:

• Involvement of family carers in advance care planning conversations is crucial for end-of-life decision-making.
• Family carers are willing to engage in advance care planning conversations, but experience barriers in doing so.
• Healthcare professionals may play an important role in supporting family carers in these advance care planning conversations.

What this paper adds:

• About half of the family carers have an advance care planning conversation with their relative in the final 3 months of life.
• Family carers were more likely to engage in advance care planning in case they were 55 of age or younger, had a medical degree (e.g. nurse or doctor), and when specialist palliative care services were involved
• The majority of family carers received advance care planning conversation support from a healthcare professional by performing the advance care planning conversation together.

Implications for practice, theory or policy:

• Healthcare professionals can play an important role in introducing tools, website or information campaigns of advance care planning.
• Healthcare professionals may consider strategies to support and empower family carers to conduct advance care planning conversations outside the clinical context.

Full paper available from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02692163221135032 If you would like to record a podcast about your published (or accepted) Palliative Medicine paper, please contact Dr Amara Nwosu: [e-mail]