A Reduced Deck of Conversation Cards of Wishes and Priorities of Patients in Palliative Care

Abstract

The individual wishes and priorities of patients with advanced disease are too often neglected, making a deck of cards with statements reflecting potential wishes and priorities a useful conversation tool. However, in the most ill patients, the card selection and sorting process may be too strenuous. The aims of this study were to explore the wishes and priorities of patients receiving palliative care and to reduce a deck of statement cards to be clinically useable even for the most ill patients. In interviews, participants selected their top 10 from a deck of 46 statement cards. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used. Thirty-nine patients from 5 specialized palliative care units in Sweden participated. Six participants died within 1 month of the interviews. "To be free from pain"was ranked as the highest priority by the majority, and "To have staff I feel comfortable with"was ranked highest by the 6 most ill participants. A deck of cards with the 20 statements most chosen by patients receiving palliative care was created. The cards cover physical, psychological, social, existential, and practical aspects and are helpful for formulating goals of care for patients and informing the development of a core outcome set for palliative care.