QOL steps: An idiographic quality of life assessment tool for palliative care

In order to more accurately assess individual QOL needs and ranking, we have piloted a new tool to define QOL needs, rank these and to assess changing needs with time.

Using a single interviewer, 42 Hospice patients were approached to define their QOL needs. Prompts from various life domains were then used to encourage any other need which might have been missed. Patients then ranked their needs in order of importance. They were then asked to indicate a score (using Cantrill's ladder) 1-10 for each need identified. They were also asked to identify where ideally they would like to be on the scale for each need. The

assessment was repeated at 2 weeks for 29 patients and 4 weeks later for 13 patients. Eleven patients died prior to the second interview.

The results and implications will be reported,

We believe that this tool may be of value as a new assessment tool for clinicians involved in Palliative Care and could have value as a Palliative Care effectiveness tool.