Care Cards: The Impact of Meaningful Conversation and Understanding Patient Preference

Mandy Wearne and Janet Butterworth, Inspiration NW, United Kingdom

A good experience of care has two dimensions – what happens to me and how I feel about my care. In this session participants will learn how to use care cards as a tool to foster meaningful conversations between patients and health professionals to tap into the emotional aspects of care. The tool ensures staff knows what matters most to each individual patient in order to personalize their care. The caregiver spends a few minutes with a patient discussing eight simple, but powerful cards and then asks the patient to prioritize them based on their personal needs. In a feasibility study using care cards with 500 patients in acute care, 96% of patients reporting that the care cards were helpful in expressing care preferences and 83% of patients reported improved care as a result of using the care cards.