Transforming the End-of-Life Journey: A Comprehensive Caregiver’s Guide

Credit

Handouts/Brochure

Speaker

Tani Bahti, RN, CT, CHPN Related seminars and products

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Tani Bahti, RN, CT, CHPN, has spent most of her 40 years in nursing focused on improving end of life care. Recognizing how fear, misinformation, and lack of information can negatively impact decision-making and the dying experience, she has been committed to improving care through education. Certified in Thanatology, she is the writer and producer of the award-winning video, “Living Through Dying – The Struggle for Grace”, she is also producer of the Straight Talk Series on End-of-Life Care, which includes her book, Dying to Know – Straight Talk about Death & Dying. A frequent speaker locally and nationally to both professional and lay groups, she has developed clinical training programs for medical and nursing students. She is founder and executive director for Passages – Support & Education in End-of-Life Issues, the goal of which is to provide compassionate guidance in end-of-life issues through support, education & research.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Tani Bahti has employment relationships with Pathways and U of A College of Medicine. She receives royalties as a published author. Tani Bahti receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Tani Bahti has no relevant non-financial relationships.

Additional Info

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Target Audience

• Nurses
• NPs
• PAs
• DOs
• MDs
• CNS

Objectives

1. Identify, prevent or overcome potential communication barriers in end of fie decision-making
2. Incorporate patient and family centered care into daily practice.
3. Adopt a simple approach to communicate natural changes related to the dying process
4. Discuss the emotional and psychosocial impact of the dying experience
5. Explore your own fears, values and perceptions about dying and how they can impact your work with the dying
6. Recognize the manifestations and impact of grief on you as a provider and the work we do.
7. Describe ways we can help the caregiver of the terminally ill to enhance communication and self care.

Outline

Module 1: Navigating the Communication Minefield of EOL Decision-making
or Balancing on a shifting Rug – Navigating end of life decision-making Avoiding the Potholes in the road to decision-making near the end of life This includes, ethical and legal issues

1. Consequences of poor communication
   • Physical, psychosocial, emotional, spiritual and financial
   • Barriers to decision-making and how to overcome them
     • Language, fragmentation, omission, training, attachment, fear of failure
     • Truth-telling vs hope
       • Paternalism in medicine
       • Issues of DNR and technology
     • Why living wills fail us
     • Family death history
     • Emotional, physical, spiritual and financial barriers
     • Our own death history
2. Physician history, values & communication
3. Patient & family centered communication
   • Techniques to improve communication and care
   • Keys to navigation
4. Our professional role

Module 2: Transforming Dying, Transforming Ourselves
Identifying QOL fears:

1. Increasing dependence
   • Fear of the unknown
   • Lack of value
   • Loss of meaning
   • Suffering
   • Desire for hastened death
2. Identify own values, beliefs and fears
3. Examples of transformation and how to support that process
4. View 5 scenarios and note own triggers, concerns re: responding to these patients
5. Discuss approaches to these issues and how both our perceptions and those of our families can be transformed

Module 3: Navigating the Storm – Tools for the Caregiver
Naming the losses

Module 4: The impact of grief on Us and Those we Serve

1. Awareness of our death & grieving history
2. The impact of grief on you as a provider
3. Identify possible manifestations of grief
   • Confronting different styles of grief
4. Discuss how to help yourself and others process their grief
5. Identify ways in which grief opens us to change
6. Discuss the ways our own grief may impact our ability to help others make difficult decisions