How-To for Hospice Assessments: PPS, FAST, PAINAD, and More

Presented by Annette Lee

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Video Runtime: 45 Minutes; Learning Assessment Time: 31 Minutes

Functional assessment tools are valuable for decision-making at intake, at recertification, and throughout the course of care. This course examines these tools and provides direction on what to watch for and what to document. This course is appropriate for hospice nurses, social workers, and administrators.

Meet your instructor

Annette Lee

Annette is a registered nurse who has been practicing since 1990, with the majority of her nursing experience being in public health care. She has a master’s degree in health care administration. In 2000 she joined the home health intermediary Cahaba GBA, where she became an instructor, providing education to home health and…

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Chapters & learning objectives

Standardized Assessments in Hospice

1. Standardized Assessments in Hospice

This chapter discusses strategies for using standardized assessments for consistent prognostication, including the importance of using standardized assessments and how to determine the right assessments are used for each patient.

Showing Functional Decline Using Standardized Assessments

2. Showing Functional Decline Using Standardized Assessments

This chapter explains the use of the overall functional assessments of PPS, KPS, and ICF for terminally ill patients. Strategies for using functional decline and overall terminal decline as part of local coverage determinations, and strategies for how to interpret and assign a value in the face of seemingly contradictory information will be discussed.

Getting Up to Speed With the FAST

3. Getting Up to Speed With the FAST

In this chapter, the FAST assessment for Alzheimer’s dementia will be discussed, including when to use the FAST assessment, how to apply it to your clinical practice, and how to interpret and assign a value in the face of seemingly contradictory information.

Pain and Other Symptoms: Making the Subjective Into Objective Data

4. Pain and Other Symptoms: Making the Subjective Into Objective Data

This chapter includes information on the use of various pain assessment tools for patients at the end of life, including commonly used pain scales and assessments. Strategies for understanding nonverbal assessments of pain will be discussed.