What is End-of-Life Essentials?
End of Life Essentials (EOLE) is a project funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and developed by a team at Flinders University. EOLE provides free education modules on end of life care in acute hospitals, based on the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care Consensus Statements on End of Life Care in Acute Hospitals.
What is the aim of EOLE?
EOLE aims to provides e-learning opportunities and resources for doctors, nurses and allied health professionals to improve the quality and safety of end-of-life care in hospitals.
What does EOLE provide?
EOLE essentials currently provides 10 education modules. Topics to date include:
- Dying, a normal part of life
- Patient-centred communication and shared decision making
- Recognising the end of life
- Planning end of life care - Goals of care
- Teams and continuity for the patient
- Responding to concerns
- Emergency department end-of-life care
- Paediatric end-of-life care
- Chronic complex illness end-of-life care
- Imminent death - how to respond
The modules help to develop the skills to recognise end-of-life issues, to enhance communication strategies and to gain confidence in caring for these patients and their families.
There is also a downloadable Toolkit that will support what has been learnt in the education modules and help in applying this knowledge in practice.
Between 2021 to 2023, EOLE will be focusing on the below activities:
1. Development of four new Allied Health videos focusing on:
- The Emergency Department
- The Medical Emergency Team
- Occupational Therapy and Discharge Planning; and
- Speech pathology and Swallowing Assessment.
2. Collaborating with the University of Notre Dame University through Professor David Kissane to develop and release three new modules covering Psychosocial and Existential Wellbeing in Palliative and End-of-Life Care, including:
- Prevalence and Risk Factors for Psycho-existential Distress
- Screening / Assessment for Psycho-existential Distress
- Management approaches to Psycho-existential Distress
3. Four new education modules and expansion of My Toolkit, covering:
- Patient coordination
- End-of-life care for underserved populations
- Clinical change management, leadership and governance.
- Meeting the ACSQHC Standards 2nd edition.
A monthly newsletter is produced to keep up to date with the project, research and resources relating to end of life care provision in the hospital setting.
You can find out more about the End of Life Essentials project by visiting the End of Life Essentials website.
For further information, please contact eolessentials@flinders.edu.au
Last updated 19 January 2021