This very accessible, straightforward book helps to allay those concerns and enables pre-registration students to prepare confidently for the challenges they will face when they are caring for dying patients and supporting their families. Each chapter is based on a different and realistic scenario - reflecting a range of circumstances - to demonstrate the essential generic knowledge and skills they need to develop, and draws out the important practical and theoretical issues students should consider and address if patients and their families are to receive the best possible care. Written by two experienced palliative care lecturer/practitioners, and mapping closely to the NMC's 2010 domains, End-of-Life Nursing Care is tailored to the needs of student nurses working with adult patients. Annie Pettifer and Joanna de Souza explore the importance of their role in end-of-life care and how this interfaces with the roles of other multidisciplinary professionals involved in the care of their patients. It will also be helpful to students of other health care professions and support newly-qualified healthcare professionals working in adult health.

Assessing Holistic Needs

Assessing Holistic Needs

Assessing holistic needs
Annie Pettifer

This chapter will explore:

  • Holistic needs assessment
  • The tools that are available to support holistic assessment
  • How to structure an assessment conversation

Holistic Needs Assessment

The significance of assessment runs deep in palliative and end-of-life care, as thorough holistic assessment of patients is key to the provision of good end-of-life care.

Assessment is the first step in determining the health needs of any patient. Its importance in end-of-life care is paramount which is emphasised in key documents. For example, Chapter 1 described the World Health Organisation's seminal definition of palliative and end-of-life care (WHO 2012), which includes ‘impeccable assessment’. Within the End of Life Care Strategy (Department of Health 2008), assessment is the second element of the end-of-life care pathway.

Assessment provides an important opportunity ...

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