Pleasant Meadow readies for the future of palliative care
Wednesday November 28, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
Pleasant Meadow Manor is moving forward with its implementation of a Cancer Ontario mandate which will help create a common language across all health-care sectors to help better serve residents who are palliative.

Starting in the new year, the Norwood long-term care home will be incorporating two forms into its quarterly assessments, which will help assess end-of-life stages in residents who are palliative and improve pain management.

Since these forms will likely be mandated by the province in the near future, incorporating these measures immediately will help OMNI homes stay ahead of the trend, notes Sandra Brow, Pleasant Meadow’s director of care.

“The idea is that over time we’ll all be talking the same language (in) pain control,” says Brow.

Staff members in OMNI homes began educational sessions on the Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) and Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) in October.

The PPS helps assess the functioning level of a person who is palliative. The scale uses a percentage model to provide caregivers with an overview of the individual’s condition.

For example, zero to 30 per cent is the final stage of life; 40 to 60 per cent is transitional and 70 to 100 per cent is stable. By incorporating the PPS, staff members will all be aware of the condition of residents who are palliative, which, in turn, will better prepare caregivers when it comes to meeting the person’s needs.

The ESAS is a nine-category scale used to help caregivers measure levels of discomfort in residents who are palliative. The ESAS gauges pain, fatigue, nausea, depression, anxiety, drowsiness, appetite, well-being and shortness of breath. The ESAS measures these components of discomfort on a range from zero to 10.

“And what that’s going to do is give us a better picture of that person as a whole, rather than just focusing on their pain,” says Brow.

Brow says additional forms to assist long-term caregivers meet the needs of residents who are palliative will be incorporated into quarterly assessments in the near future.

At the moment, Pleasant Meadow is working at implementing the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario’s best practices guidelines for pain and comfort.

Pleasant Meadow is in the first year of the two-year mandate to bring these guidelines to the home. Presently, the home is working on identifying its stakeholders — residents, family members and the local community — and educating them about pain.

Like the PPS and the ESAS, Brow says these guidelines will ensure that long-term caregivers are all “looking at the same picture (and) we’re all speaking the same language.”