Emotion-focused care requested by hospital patients with dementia via advance care planning

Background: This study responds to international pressures to improve hospital care for patients with dementia. Aim: To reach a concise overview of ways to improve the emotional wellbeing of patients with dementia when in hospital by exploring their personal care requests. Methods: Written advance care planning (ACP) documents completed by patients with dementia and their caregivers were retrieved from a UK hospital (n=21) and analysed using descriptive phenomenology. Findings: Care requests showed the changeable and personal nature of emotional distress and gave the responses that patients require from hospital staff. Responses included: attending to physical health, offering reassurance, being with the patient, treating the patient as a person and providing a different physical environment. Conclusion: ACP documents offered a structured tool for informing care with succinct, personalised requests of patients with dementia. Patient requests were consistent with extensive literature defining person-centred care. Increased use of ACP in hospitals requires evaluation.