What are the key principles of communication with patients and families regarding palliative care options?

Key principles of communication with patients and their families regarding palliative care options include:

• Effective, honest, and clear communication: Provide accurate, realistic information about diagnosis, prognosis, treatment options, and disease progression, avoiding false optimism but maintaining hope where appropriate.
• Assess and respect individual preferences: Continuously assess how much information the patient and their family want and can understand, and how involved they wish to be in decision-making.
• Involve those important to the patient: Include family members or others significant to the patient in discussions if the patient wishes, ensuring cultural, spiritual, and social needs are considered.
• Use trained communicators and support: Complex or distressing information should be communicated by professionals with enhanced skills or with support, and interpreters should be arranged if needed.
• Shared decision-making: Engage patients and families in shared decision-making about care plans, respecting advance care plans, advance decisions to refuse treatment, and legal powers of attorney.
• Continuity and coordination of care: Nominate a keyworker to ensure continuity, coordinate communication within multidisciplinary teams, and document discussions and care plans clearly.
• Provide opportunities for discussion and emotional support: Allow patients and families to express fears, ask questions, and revisit discussions as their condition or preferences change.
• Offer information in multiple formats: Provide verbal information primarily, supplemented by written materials or records of consultations if desired.

These principles ensure that communication is patient-centred, sensitive, and supports informed, shared decisions about palliative care options.

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