Quality of life at end of life

Abstract

Patients with chronic kidney disease, particularly those with diabetes, often have a heavy burden of vascular comorbidity and hence a poor overall prognosis. Unfortunately, patients and their healthcare teams often have unrealistic expectations about outcomes and receive ineffective and often harmful interventions towards their end of life. We need to move away from death being perceived as a failure and realise, instead, that our goal of care at the end of life is to achieve as good a quality of life for the patient as possible. To be able to achieve this, it is important to be realistic about prognosis, be able to recognise predictors of poor outcome and then be able to discuss these with the patient and their family to ensure symptom control, avoid interventions that could do harm and then as the end approaches, determine the wishes of the patient regarding preferred place of care for their inevitable death. © 2012 European Dialysis and Transplant Nurses Association/European Renal Care Association.