Managing fatigue allows patients to talk about their prognosis and continue carrying out the occupations that are of the greatest importance to them .” occupations that are of the greatest importance to them .
Managing fatigue allows patients to talk about their prognosis and continue carrying out the occupations that are of the greatest importance to them .” occupations that are of the greatest importance to them .
As part of this , we identify what activities of daily living could be supported by family members or carers to preserve the patient ’ s energy . In doing this , we increase families understanding of our patient ’ s condition and how fatigue may impact on their function .
We also provide equipment to manage fatigue and facilitate function . One young patient wished to continue making lunch for her daughters who were primary school age . She told us that this was her way of expressing love for them and knowing she would not see them grow up , she wanted them to remember she did this for them .
She was willing to organise her day and activities around this one central task , which gave her the chance to prioritise her children ’ s needs with her limited life expectancy . Once she had voiced her priorities , she managed her fatigue around this one essential task with her family ’ s support .
What we found and what next
The data we collected indicated that the patients were positive about the interventions we used , while many patients felt their symptoms were alleviated .
We cannot draw any research focused conclusions from this project , but the broadly positive responses received has supported our continued use of these interventions .
We are expanding our clinical practice further into the management of breathlessness . We are forming links with community breathlessness management groups and are developing resources for patients around this area of symptom management .
Potentially , there are multiple benefits from occupational therapists implementing nonpharmacological symptom management . It may facilitate a patient ’ s choice of where they would wish to die , by supplementing pharmacological symptom control .
For palliative patients , improving their symptoms has the potential to improve their quality of life and function . These interventions are not an alternative when other therapies have failed , but used to compliment the positive effect of other treatments .
We benchmarked our project with other services and found that the use of symptom management is variable across other acute trusts and community teams . In some areas , very little of this work is done , while others have extensive programmes addressing multiple different symptoms .
We are keen to continue talking to other teams about their symptom management work , with a view to enhancing clinical practice across occupational therapy in palliative care .
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Words CATHERINE BREWIN , SARAH COWLISHAW , and ANGIE GREENER , Occupational Therapists , Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust catherine . brewin1 @ nhs . net
28 OTnews November 2024