This Live Webinar Session is from 12:15 - 1:15pm Pacific Time

Caring for patients at the end of life, whether during anticipated or sudden death is a challenging experience for everyone involved in providing care to the patient. Education and discussions around the issues faced at the end of life are critical to fostering a comfort level with clinical staff, caregivers, patients, families and institutions.  As science advances to provide the latest treatments, the need for palliative and end of life care has also increased.  Those working with patients should be educated on and fully informed of how they can help patients in many ways and provide resources, including psychosocial and spiritual aspects, when they transition from curative to comfort-focused care. 

Over a nine month period this activity is designed to educate and prepare those providing care to patients at the end of life in understanding the various influences that affect patients when the focus of their treatment changes from curative to comfort-focused care allowing for a life with quality even when curative treatments are no longer an option. This session will focus upon the history and evolution of medical aid in dying medications, current protocols, "red flags," possible complications, and options for ingestion. In addition, the importance of providing patient centered informed consent, appropriate contextual support, resources, and security of storage will be discussed. Attendees will also learn the pharmacology of aid in dying compounds, their expected action, and post-ingestion effects.