Bupa Bellarine

Liverpool Care Pathway

The Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Resident was designed by Professor John Ellershaw and Deborah Murphy from Marie Curie Palliative Institute. It was developed as a means of transferring the hospice model of care into other care settings. It is an interdisciplinary document which provides an evidence-based framework for end of life care. The Liverpool Care Pathway provides guidance on the different aspects of care required, including comfort measures, anticipatory prescribing of medications and discontinuation of inappropriate interventions. Additionally, psychological and spiritual care and family support are included. The Liverpool Care Pathway replaces all other documentation in this phase of care and is applicable in the hospital, hospice, nursing home and community settings.

Bupa Bellarine has been one of the first private aged care facilities in the Geelong area, and one of the first Bupa facilities in Australia to introduce and implement the Liverpool Care Pathway. Staff attending a Palliative Care Conference in Brisbane, were able to see that the Palliative Care Program at Bupa Bellarine, incorporating the Liverpool Care Pathway was indeed a successful tool to evaluate the care and needs of the dying resident.

The lack of complexity makes the Pathway user friendly, and allows Bupa Bellarine staff to interpret the clinical signs and systems and the need for further medical intervention for the resident who is dying. The Liverpool Care Pathway replaces all documentation, and helps provide, from the document itself, relief from pain and other distressing symptoms, affirms life and regards dying as a normal process.

An important part of the process of implementation of the Liverpool Care Pathway is the education sessions which explain the background, the need for impeccable assessment, and discusses each section of the pathway in detail so that staff will feel confident in using this document. Also included in the pathway are flow charts for symptoms such as pain, nausea and vomiting, breathlessness, and terminal restlessness.

The education sessions required for the implementation of the Liverpool Pathway has led to interested staff pursuing further knowledge and education. They have attended conferences and have been working through a palliative work book to help them understand symptoms discussed on the LIverpool Care Pathway.

Bupa Bellarine has been commended for the successful implementation, ongoing use of this Pathway and the improvement in staff knowledge and attitudes towards the culture of death and dying, by members of the Community Palliative Care Consultants and Nursing Team, medical practitioners and other facility managers.

The Palliative Care Group motto: To cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always. (Anon)