Video: Advice on advance care planning during the COVID-19 crisis

Advance care planning is especially crucial during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University researchers Susan Hickman, Ph.D., and Kathleen Unroe, M.D., MHA, created a video to help guide nursing facility staff in these conversations.

Nursing home residents are at a high risk of contracting COVID-19 and suffering serious symptoms that require extensive care. In the video, Dr. Hickman and Dr. Unroe explain that discussing patients' preferences for care in advance is important to help make sure their wishes are known should urgent decisions need to be made. These discussions should be guided by a framework that considers overall goals for care in order to make specific decisions for treatments.

Dr. Hickman and Dr. Unroe go on to offer advice to staff on how to broach this difficult topic with their patients and how to describe goals of care.