Advance Care Planning by Rehabilitation Professionals: an Experience with a Patient with Nonmalignant Respiratory Disease

Abstract

We herein report a case of a 76-year-old male patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease whose advance care planning (ACP) was facilited by rehabilitation staff by utilizing dialogue in rehabilitation settings, mainly in the context of conditioning and self-management during pulmonary rehabilitation. When a rehabilitation professional is involved in ACP, it is easy to be involved in the so-called ACP in the broad sense. Compared to other professions, rehabilitation professionals have more time being with a patient for dialogue and can discuss the patient's values and future concerns from a life-centered perspective. To promote ACP in the practical settings, rehabilitation professionals, who have the advantage of having more time for dialogue than other professions, need to be involved in ACP by taking advantage of repeated opportunities for dialogue.