Using Cards to Facilitate Conversations About Wishes and Priorities of Patients in Palliative Care.

To avoid discomfort, health care professionals may hesitate to pursue conversations about end of life with patients. Certain tools have the potential to facilitate smoother conversations in this matter. The objective was to explore the experiences of patients in palliative care in using statement cards to talk about their wishes and priorities. Forty-six cards with statements of wishes and priorities were developed and tested for feasibility with 40 participants, who chose the 10 most important cards and shared their thoughts about the statements and conversation. Data from individual interviews and field notes were analyzed using content analysis. One category describes practical aspects of using the cards including the relevance of the content and the process of sorting the cards. The second category describes the significance of using the cards including becoming aware of what is important, sharing wishes and priorities, and reflecting on whether wishes and priorities change closer to death. The cards helped raise awareness and verbalize wishes and priorities. All statements were considered relevant. The conversations focused not only on death and dying, but also on challenges in the participants' current life situation. For the most ill and frail participants, the number of cards needs to be reduced.

Effects of a one-year home-based case management intervention on falls in older people: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of a home-based one-year case management intervention in older people with functional dependency and repeated contact with the health care services on self-reported falls and self-reported injurious falls. METHODS: The study was a randomized controlled trial with repeated follow-ups. The sample (n = 153) was consecutively and randomly assigned to the intervention group (n = 80, mean age = 81.4 [SD 5.9]) or control group (n = 73, mean age = 81.6 [SD 6.8]). The intervention group received a case management intervention which comprised monthly home visits during 12 months by nurses and physiotherapists employing a multifactorial preventive approach. RESULTS: In the intervention group, 96 falls occurred during the intervention period compared with 85 falls in the control group (p = .900). There were 40 and 38 injurious falls (p = .669) in the intervention and control groups, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This home-based case management intervention was not able to prevent falls or injurious falls.