PhD defence Franciscus Brigitta Antonia Louise Peerboom

Keywords: Advance care planning, Nursing staff, Older people, Theoretical framework

"Listen Beyond Words: Unraveling the Fundamentals of Nursing End-of-Life Communication as part of Advance Care Planning for Older People"

This dissertation focuses on advance care planning (ACP) for older people. ACP is a continuous and dynamic process of conversations about current and future life goals, choices, and the care that aligns with these now and in the future. Nursing staff play a central role in this process because they are close to older people and their family caregivers. At the same time, they experience barriers when engaging in these conversations, such as uncertainty and a lack of role clarity.

The LISTEN project therefore explored which fundamentals are important in these conversations. Based on a scoping review, interview studies, focus groups, and an international Delphi study, a theoretical framework was developed, refined, and validated. This framework describes fundamentals such as trust, listening, attuning to the other person, and silence.

The framework can help nursing staff to consciously engage in person-centered conversations about ACP with older people and their family caregivers. This may help ensure that ACP better aligns with the wishes of older people and their family caregivers, the context, and the nursing staff.

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