To attend this session virtually, please click:

For questions, please contact Matthew Wood via email at [email protected] 

Objectives

After participating in this educational activity, attendees should be able to:

1| Demonstrate the ability to recognize the dying process, confirm medical decision-maker and code status, perform comprehensive symptom assessment using standardized tools (pain scales, respiratory distress indicators), and implement appropriate care modifications including discontinuation of non-comfort interventions.
2| Calculate and administer appropriate medications for end-of-life symptom control, including opioid dosing and equianalgesic conversions for pain, anticholinergics for secretions, antiemetics for nausea, and antipsychotics for terminal agitation, while considering organ function limitations and medication contraindications.
3| Execute safe protocols for ventilation withdrawal (mechanical ventilation and HFNC weaning), implement comfort-focused monitoring approaches, and manage the transition from curative to palliative interventions.
4| Apply evidence-based non-pharmacological comfort measures, appropriately utilize support services (spiritual care, social work, clinical ethics, hospice), evaluate patients for appropriate hospice level of care, and facilitate family-centered end-of-life care.
 

Presenter(s):

Ariel Brugger, PA-C, PAHPCM
Inpatient Palliative Care
Baystate Medical Center