Table 1 Course content and teaching methods

Three individual tasks (online)

1) The participants reflect on when they think is the best time to discuss about the HF trajectory with a patient for the first time and give reasons for their choices.

2) The participants familiarize themselves with the QPL and reflect on their own knowledge and ability to converse with the patient and family about the different questions in the QPL.

3) The participants use the QPL in their clinical work with one patient and/or one family member.

Lectures (online)

1) Why do we need to talk about the HF trajectory and end-of-life care? -15 min

2) Discussing the HF trajectory and end-of-life care

- Who, what and when? -25 min

3) Patients with heart failure pacemaker or

ICD- how to end the treatment − 15 min

4) Patients’ experiences of, and preferences for communication about the HF trajectory − 10 min

5) The existential conversation − 15 min

6) End-of-life care communication in HF -20 min

7) Communication with the family members − 10 min

Group discussions (training day)

Participants are divided into small groups with a group leader. The participants reflect on what questions in the QPL they perceived as easy or difficult to discuss. Through group discussions, participants can learn from each other’s experiences.

Simulation (training day)

Two actors simulate the role of a patients with HF who want to discuss questions in the QPL and the participants act as health care professionals. The participants take turns to simulate a family member in the conversations and take part in the discussion afterwards.