Integrating a Palliative Approach: Essentials for Personal Support Workers, Textbook (Online)

A truly unique textbook – written specifically for Personal Support Workers (who also work under the job title of healthcare assistants, nurse’s aides, community support workers and so on) learning to integrate a palliative approach and support people declining and dying.

PSWs – Vital members of the health care team

With this textbook students can learn about the vital role of a PSW on the health care team. The easy-to-read style smooths the path for students to learn provides practical palliative care strategies through stories of care-giving, competency touchstones and real-life scenarios. By all counts, it is an enjoyable read for learners! Students using the text, Integrating a Palliative Approach report increased confidence and competence in providing compassionate, culturally-safe palliative care for any person and their family.

Because everyone provides care for a dying person and their family

The text is a timeless resource for PSWs, HCAs, CCAs and all healthcare workers providing direct care. Because everyone on the health care team provides care for a dying person and their family, all PSWs ( i.e., direct care providers) need to build their knowledge and skills of integrating a palliative approach and providing palliative care. And this is the textbook to get them there!  Students can learn:

• The PSW’s vital role and their responsibilities in providing palliative care and a palliative approach
• Easy steps to integrating a palliative approach
• Best practices for communicating and providing compassionate palliative care
• Techniques for gathering information
• Ways to support through losses and grief

Key topics in palliative care included in the text:

• Supporting physical comfort
• Common symptoms of declining and dying, and last days and hours
• Responding to advance care planning and Medical Assistance in Dying requests
• Providing care in the last days and hours
• Understanding and preventing compassion fatigue

The PSW text and resources are much more than just a palliative care resource.

Students also develop their core care-giving skills. In addition to learning how to integrate a palliative approach and understanding dying, supporting physical comfort and so on,  the PSW resources support learners to develop their core care-giving skills. These include building:

• Self-awareness
• Therapeutic boundaries
• Skills for communicating in difficult conversations
• Capacity for supporting cultural safety and embedding a trauma-informed approach into their practice.

This is THE textbook for PSWs working in community and Long Term Care!