The April edition of Julies Corner can be found at the following link:
https://www.jeccs.org/category/palliative-care/
Let’s revisit Advance Care Planning this month. The uptake of advance care planning discussions within health professionals and patients is very dependent on how comfortable we are as the health professional in having these conversations.
I am curious do you have your own Advance Care Plan? Have you at least thought about the type of care you would or would not want and communicated this to the person who will be making health care decisions on your behalf, if you are unable to communicate this yourself? Have you spoken to your parents / your partner about their wishes? We cannot assume that we know what someone else would want. Thinking about our own Advance Care Plan is a helpful way to start to think about how we might have these conversations with patients to ensure their wishes and preferences are respected.