Do Healthy People Engage With Education About Death, Dying and Advance Care Planning? An Early Evaluation of the Omega Course.

Death can be difficult to address personally, to discuss and to plan for. Since 2016 The Omega Course (Omega) has educated local people in Kenilworth, UK, about death and dying; broaching these issues and teaching communication skills whilst enabling social interaction. It aspires to produce practical outcomes with positive implications for end of life (EoL) planning and future neighbourhood care within the town.

Comparison of informal caregiver and named nurse assessment of symptoms in elderly patients dying in hospital using the palliative outcome scale.

Objectives: A prospective study of symptom assessments made by a healthcare professional (HCP; named nurse) and an informal caregiver (ICG) compared with that of the patient with a terminal diagnosis. To look at the validity of HCP and ICG as proxies, which symptoms they can reliably assess, and to determine who is the better proxy between HCP and ICG.

Methods: A total of 50 triads of patient (>65 years) in the terminal phase, ICG and named nurse on medical wards of an acute general hospital.

PA14 The legacy of cancer: why a health promoting approach is so important in palliative care.

Background: A diagnosis of cancer and anticipated death of a loved one has a significant impact on the whole family. Research has mainly focused on carers, with little emphasis on the wider, long-term implications.

Aim: To explore the cancer beliefs of patients with advanced cancer and their relatives.

Information needs and prostate cancer: the development of a systematic means of identification.

Objective: To design, from first principles, a valid and reliable scale for assessing the importance of specific items of information needed by patients with prostate cancer that would be straightforward to use in clinical settings, as despite its prevalence, there is little research focusing specifically on the information needs associated with prostate cancer.

Patients And Methods: Several stages of consultation and modification were used to inform the development of a scale which was then piloted on 96 patients with prostate cancer. Respondents were asked to rate the importance they placed on a range of prostate cancer-related topics of information, and the extent to which they felt these information needs had been met.