LTC network develops comfort checklist, palliative care basket
Thursday, November 24, 2005 -- Natalie Miller
A network of long-term care providers has developed two new tools to help caregivers support residents who are palliative.

The Four Counties LTC Palliative Care Network has created a comfort checklist and palliative care basket for use in homes in the City of Kawartha Lakes and Peterborough, Haliburton and Northumberland counties.

The network was formed to develop a streamlined approach to supporting long-term care residents who are palliative. The steering committee is comprised of long-term care employees from the 28 homes in the area, a consultant pharmacist and representative from Hospice Peterborough.

“Nursing homes are already involved in caring for palliative people,” says Barb Bremner of Medical Pharmacy, who is a member of the network.

“We want to provide some more support in the nursing home. (Members) are able to network with people who are facing the same challenges. We always try to have a sharing and education piece.”

The network developed a checklist designed for staff as a tool to assess resident ease and needs. It includes such questions as Are they in pain? Are they sitting on the proper surface? Have they been visited by someone who upset them?

“We came up with a list so some poor, brand new PSW doesn’t have to think up this on her own,” she says. This way, when a resident is agitated, there’s a reference containing a variety of possible reasons.

Members of the network have also discussed the idea of having a palliative care basket in the homes. This basket could contain items like soothing lotions, extra socks, a portable CD player with music and toys for small children “things you might conceive needing at the bedside,” says Barb. Homes can put together a basket or cart that can be wheeled or carried to the bedside of a resident who is palliative to comfort the resident and his or her family.

The network meets for the fourth time today and has a regular attendance of 30 to 40 members. Presentations are a component of the meetings, with KCI, a company that makes therapeutic mattresses speaking to the group today.

Other goals of the network include making hospice more accessible in the community, helping staff members deal with death and removing the stigma of death.

The network will also help build palliative care and pain and comfort teams in each home and look at developing policies and protocols for the whole continuum of care.