Strategies and Tools for Implementing Advance Care Planning Across the Continuum

Approaching the topic of Advance Care Planning (ACP) with patients and families is often difficult, overwhelming, uncomfortable, and, unfortunately, too late. Over the past 30 years, numerous organizations have been established to identify and find solutions that bridge the knowledge gap between healthcare professionals and patients, while honoring a patient’s values, goals, and wishes. This gap created the need for ACP. Strategies and tools to guide healthcare professionals and patients can facilitate less difficult, more effective, and timely conversations among patients, families, and providers. In this article, we present numerous strategies and tools used in ACP by examining a fictional case study exemplar about an individual who is fairly advanced along the continuum of advance care planning. The complexities of the case study further accentuate the need for strategies and tools in ACP conversations and discusses those that we have used in practice. Included also are supplemental materials that offer definitions, and outline strategies and tools that can be helpful for healthcare professionals, patients and families, or anyone interested in addressing ACP.