CHFT colleagues are the clinical leads in a new film aiming to promote conversations around final wishes.
The aim is to promote the benefits to healthcare professionals and to families with relatives who are at the end of their lives to talk openly and plan ahead.
It is not just after sudden illness in hospital setting, it could also apply to a home setting where a patient has had a long-standing chronic condition.
Community matron, Mandy Kazmierski, said this new approach would provide better end-of-life care for our patients and their families.
She said: “We’re British, we don’t talk about it!” It is hard but as the population ages we are going to have to do it and not just in an acute setting.
“People have to open up and start talking about what they would want at the end of their life. Many are adamant they wouldn’t want to be resuscitated, for example. But it is more than DNACPR it is also about care planning and issues such as power of attorney."
Colleagues Purav Desai and Sue Shaw have also taken part.
Dr Desai, said: “ I feel really privileged to be able to share my experience and knowledge in this short film. This very important aspect of patient care needs a sensitive, holistic and knowledgeable approach which I hope we have been able to portray."
Mandy said having real relatives and clinicians – not actors - was crucial to the film’s success.
She added: "We did not want role play, we wanted real people with real experiences to show the difference we can make with timely conversations with family and friends.”
Dr Mary Kiely told CHFT Weekly: "I hope this film will help doctors realise that it's much better to start these conversations with patients when they're relatively stable, perhaps at home, or in outpatients.
"There's a tendency to not want to upset patients by talking about the 'what ifs...', but one of the most satisfying parts of my job is being able to help patients achieve their final wishes.
"If these conversations are left until the eleventh hour when the patient is in MAU or A&E, we'll be too late to make a difference. We've got to be much more honest with people, much earlier, and we've got to use the 'D' word".
The End-of-Life team received end-of-life funding from Health Education Yorkshire and the Humber and Palliative Care Charitable Fund for the film and we worked with partners Limehouse and Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.
Associate director Ruth Mason, pictured in the attachment, said: "This is a really important subject and one that needs to be dealt with sensitively.
"We were delighted to work with Limehouse on the filming, but more importantly I wanted to thank the three carers on film who were so very courageous and open. They all know how important it is to help our clinicians have those important conversations with our patients and their families."
You can see the video on the Resuscitation Training Department intranet page here.