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Table 1 Intervention the trained GPs had received two year before

From: Timely identification of palliative patients and anticipatory care planning by GPs: practical application of tools and a training programme

Two years prior to this qualitative study, the GPs that had been allocated to the intervention condition of a randomized controlled trial had received a five-hour group training in early identification and proactive palliative care planning. During this course, they received and practiced using the following tools developed by our research group:

(1) the RADPAC, a tool with specific indicators to identify patients with COPD, CHF and cancer who might benefit from palliative care, and

(2) a proactive palliative care planning card, the ‘Problems Square’: a tool designed to help users make a structured proactive care plan in which current and possible future problems (somatic; social and financial; caregiving and activities of daily living; and existential and psychological), dying scenarios, and patient’s wishes and needs are considered.

The trained GPs were invited to apply this knowledge and these tools in their daily practice, and thus to identify palliative patients and to develop a proactive palliative care plan for each of them. With regards to each palliative patient the trained GPs identified, they were offered an individual coaching session by phone with a consultant specialised in palliative care. During this session the anticipatory care plan the GP had prepared was discussed, and adapted where needed. Finally, all trained GPs were offered two additional face-to-face peer group sessions in which experiences could be exchanged, and where they could practice with simulation patients to communicate end of life aspects.

The GPs in the control condition had not received any training or intervention.