CPPE’s palliative care focal point workshop is designed to help you feel more confident about engaging with those patients who require end-of-life care

The House of Commons last month published a report on end-of-life care that highlighted “great variation in quality and practice across both acute and community settings” and made recommendations to improve care. These include improving communication with patients and their family members and talking to them about choice of medicines and options for treatment.

Pharmacy professionals in any sector can support patients, their family members and carers through this difficult period. Some of the recommendations from the report will take time to implement. However, there are changes you can make to your practice now to support patients in need of palliative care.

Focal point workshops

CPPE’s palliative care focal point workshop can support you to feel more confident in engaging with patients receiving palliative care and discussing their needs, including their condition, choice of medicines and options for treatment. CPPE is running palliative care workshops across England between April and September 2015. To find out more and to book a place at your local workshop, visit the CPPE website (cppe.ac.uk).

Challenges

The palliative care floor on theLearningpharmacy.com provides challenges to help you think about how you can support patients who are suffering from fatigue, side-effects of medicines or cancer pain. There is also a section on responding to customers wanting to dispose of unwanted medicines following bereavement.

Useful resources

The ‘Consultation skills for pharmacy practice’ website is full of useful resources and learning materials to help you develop the way you engage with patients to ensure they are involved in decisions about their medicines whenever possible. Every time you speak with a patient or customer you have the opportunity to take a patient-centred approach and this can make a real difference to patients receiving palliative care and their families. See consultationskillsforpharmacy.com for more information.