Principle 3

Principle 3 – “End of life care is provided through integrated working, with practitioners collaborating to ensure seamless care and support at the point of delivery. Needs are met in ways that are appropriate to the person, rather than being service-led. Workers maintain ongoing communication so that care and support is properly co-ordinated and responsive to changing circumstances and priorities”.

Carers must work cohesively with one another to make sure that the services provided by them meet the needs of the patient, as well as their family. If communication breaks down between colleagues, the service-user can understandably be negatively affected. For example, the person may be given 2 doses of medication by two different carers which may cause them to overdose, or the person may have a particular problem which doesn’t get sorted out because it is not passed on to the correct worker or manager.

Communication is also a must between carers and the family of the patient. Having said this, however, the wishes of the person must be taken into account, so as a carer you cannot break their confidence or give out information that they wish to be withheld. From an operational point of view, as well as the fact that there must be good communication between individual carers, there must also be good communication between different sectors relating to end of life care, for example between Care homes, CQC, the department of health and clinical networks. Communication is so vital if end of life care is to be managed appropriately for all concerned.