DEVELOPING A PLAN OF CARE
Once the patient’s goals and values have been elicited, a
plan of care can be developed. When the goal is to have comfort
for the final weeks of life, the plan of care will be very
different than when the goal is prolonged survival, even if
it requires burdensome interventions. Strong physician or
practitioner input in developing the plan of care is critical.
One error that is sometimes made in discussing the plan
of care is to focus solely on what will not be done (e.g., no
intubation, no CPR, no hospitalization). This may leave the
patient and family wondering what will happen as they are
dying. They will need to be informed how pain, dyspnea, and
suffering will be effectively managed and be reassured that
care will not be withdrawn.
Patients and families may still have misconceptions about
the benefits of various interventions. CPR in particular may
be misunderstood. Patients and families may vastly overestimate
the success of CPR and may make decisions based
on that misinformation. Learning about the futility of this
intervention in certain settings and conditions may change
the likelihood of requesting it.6
Benefits of dialysis for nursing
home patients may also be misunderstood. It has been
shown that most patients residing in a nursing home who
begin dialysis will die or have a significant decline in function
in the year following initiation of dialysis.7
Patients receiving
chemotherapy or radiation for advanced cancer often do
not understand that the treatment is not likely to cure their
cancer.8,9 Many families may assume that the placement of
a feeding tube will benefit a patient with advanced dementia
whose dietary intake has declined. Research has shown that
the placement of a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy
tube does not prolong survival.10 It is important to assess
patient and family understanding of the benefits or the treatment
options they are considering, or they may be opting for
interventions that are unlikely to help them.
Patients, families, and nursing home staff may not understand
the benefits of antibiotics in a dementia patient with
pneumonia. Antibiotics are often viewed as a comfort measure
by the staff; however, research has shown this is not
the case. Patients with dementia who were given antibiotics
were actually found to be more uncomfortable than patients
who did not receive antibiotics.11 Antibiotics did however
prolong survival of patients with advanced dementia and
pneumonia. Again, it is critical to determine what the goals
of care are at that point.