Empowering staff to embrace and discuss frailty as a health condition

Abstract

Copyright: © 2019 The Authors. Published by Archetype Health Pty Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. SUMMARY The 4Cs Project (Courageous, Compassionate, Confident Conversations) was designed and driven by a multidisciplinary team of staff caring for patients with frailty in a community hospital setting at Worcester City In Patient Unit. They had realised that frailty was frequently underdiagnosed and that these patients were often reaching the end of life without its recognition and the necessary conversations about advance care planning taking place with them and their families was being missed. The key to the project’s success was to focus first on the staff and their concerns, as well as their lack of confidence around discussing death and dying. They designed initiatives together that addressed their hesitance, and in turn strengthened their team and community, and created “Joy in Work”.