Hospitals: Tips for Preparing POLST Illinois In-Servicing

Hospitals: Tips for Preparing POLST Illinois In-servicing September 10, 2013 [email protected]

1. Given that POLST is appropriate for people with advanced illness and/or the frail elderly, what are the primary points of intersection of POLST-appropriate patients with medical staff?

A. Outpatients: Who are the patients, and who are the providers who would be talking to them about this? Some examples: o Oncology for late-stage malignancy: Cancer center- psychosocial staff, nurses, physicians (med onc and rad onc) o Cardiology for CHF: Cardiac rehab staff, outpatient cardiologists and their staff o Pulmonary for COPD: Outpatient pulmonary lab staff, outpatient pulmonologists and their staff o Dialysis patients for ESRD: Social workers and nurses from the dialysis centers used by our nephrologists; nephrologists and their staff o Geriatrics offices: geriatricians and their staff o Nursing home “partners” with whom hospital does business: DON’s, Med directors, social workers o Outpatient care managers

B. First responders in ED o EMS people who are connected with our ED’s (some hospitals have on-staff coordinator of emergency medical services) o ED staff, including housestaff

C. Upon Admission o Housestaff, esp medicine and family practice o Critical care staff- intensivists, nursing staff o Nursing o Social work/care management o Chaplains o Hospitalists o Medical staff

D. Upon Discharge o Patients who will be discharged from hospital with new POLST forms (same staff as above, with a stress on case managers/housestaff) 2. Potential educational methods/Available tools o Leave-behind written information ( one or both sides of attached flyer) o 5-10 minute in-person introduction o hour-long formal slide lecture (slides available) o less formal hour-long review of form itself o multiple shift nursing grand rounds (30 minutes suggested, short version slides available) o medicine grand rounds o publishing in internal medicine newsletter (sample hospital flyer attached) o brief mention in general hospital newsletter o blast e-mail/intranet announcement through public relations office o Brief on-line video featuring medical staff leadership, sent to medical staff o Review of clinical vignettes -- vignettes with answers available on cecc.info, click on POLST (at bottom of home page), feel free to modify o 15-question Post-Test (with and without answers)- also available on cecc.info o Guidance for Healthcare Providers written document

3. Other educational tools that will be available in the future o Online slideshow featuring recorded narration of POLST slides multiple lengths o Development of POLST Illinois website; ultimately polst website will be polstil.org) o 10-15 minute posted (youtube?) video called “POLST in Action Illinois” (modeled after similar videos that exist for California, Oregon, Maine, Pennsylvania, etc.)

4. Optional But Appreciated Feedback for POLST IL Taskforce The POLST Illinois project takes a village! Our volunteers have developed all of the tools we are providing for your use. If you use any of these tools to train your staff in or out of the hospital, we would appreciate if you would a) participate in making them better for future users, and, b) help us keep records of our “reach” for possible future funding efforts:

o Specific Feedback about all tools: what works well, what could be better, what is missing? o General details about your teaching sessions: When/How Long/ Who Presented/What Tools Used/Who are the audience and how many? o Send feedback and questions Rachael Telleen at [email protected]