The pandemic has highlighted how quickly our lives can change. Helping patients prepare for their future helps them to stay in control of their care, especially if their health changes unexpectedly.
Moreover, many patients and families want honest information about their illness, including what to expect as an illness evolves. They expect that their health care providers will discuss what matters most with them. Doing so can result in less stress, goal-concordant care, and better quality of life. We now know that we can approach these conversations in a structured way like we do for many other clinical procedures.
We’ve developed guides to help you have structured conversations that are backed by evidence. They provide a framework for discussing a new diagnosis, progression of disease, asking about goals and values, and addressing prognostic uncertainty. Health care providers using conversation guides report feeling more confident in their skills and greater role satisfaction.
Register to learn more about the guides and join us in transforming the way we deliver care by using them in your practice!
“This is exactly what I wish I had been taught earlier in my training. Thank you for creating this helpful tool. It’s made my family meetings so much more effective.”
-Ali, PGY2 Family Medicine
Overview of tools
We’ve created practical resources to add to every clinician’s communication toolkit. Register to access them.
- Patient and Family Guide – assists the people we care for with questions to ask their health care team to help them take control of their care and plan for their future.
- Clinician Conversation Guides – offer a structured evidence-based approach to leading serious illness conversations with your patient or their substitute decision maker that have been shown to lead to better conversations.
- Communication Skills Guide – offers high-yield core communication techniques to help you more confidently deliver serious news, address prognostic uncertainty and respond to emotion with empathy.
- Documentation Guide – describes ways to document important conversations in the electronic health record so that you, and other clinicians, can easily find information needed to make in-the-moment treatment decisions.
