Covid-19 Guide for finding the right words for patient/family discussions

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Found in today's email from The Truth About Nursing https://www.truthaboutnursing.org Karen

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Here is a helpful guide for finding the right words to say to patients and family members suffering from Covid-19 and who are experiencing rationed care.

COVID Ready Communication Playbook from Vital Talk

https://www.vitaltalk.org/guides/covid-19-communication-skills/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=698cce37-bd3d-4ed5-aee9-809c8daa379c

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VitalTalk is a 501c3 nonprofit social impact organization dedicated to making communication skills for serious illness part of every clinician’s toolbox.

We’ve crowdsourced this playbook to provide some practical advice on how to talk about some difficult topics related to COVID-19. ...

Topics include:

• Screening - When someone is worried they might be infected

• Preferencing - When someone may want to opt out of hospitalization

• Triaging - When you’re deciding where a patient should go

• Admitting - When your patient needs the hospital, or the ICU

• Counseling - When coping needs a boost, or emotions are running high

• Deciding - When things aren’t going well, goals of care, code status

• Resourcing - When limitations force you to choose, and even ration

• Notifying - When you are telling someone

• Anticipating - When you’re worrying about what might happen

• Grieving - When you’ve lost someone