Anticipatory Care Planning Study Days at St Luke’s

To support the drive in anticipatory care planning, inaugural study days were held on 28th April and 4th June at St Luke’s Hospice, Kenton and at the Sangat Centre in Harrow. Anticipatory care planning is the concept of enabling patients to have a say in the planning of their own future care and is considered as one of the most important new developments in health provision.

More than 60 professionals attended. The audience ranged from consultants, junior doctors and GPs to district nurses and specialist community nurses, A and E staff, nursing home and care home staff.

The day had a very practical feel to it. Several sessions looked at the communication skills needed to raise the issue with a patient or family. To help develop utilisable skills, actors and role plays were used and the audience given the chance to replay the scenarios using different communication strategies. This enabled staff to see the importance of recognising and responding to a patient’s agenda.

The assessments of the course were overwhelming including “brilliant” “fantastic” and “highly recommended”. This course starts to put Harrow in a strong position to develop this concept of care and a firm foundation on which to build.