Comfort care for a dying woman and her daughter
RCSI OSCE practice station
Pain management · 1 min to read · 10 min to perform
Explain what to expect to the daughter and complete the record.
Ms Gráinne O'ConnorIs she in pain? She keeps frowning and her lips look so dry.
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Open the full station (charts, voice, result letter) →The task
You are the nurse on a medical ward. Mrs Eileen O'Connor, aged 83, has advanced heart failure and is now in the last days of life. She is no longer able to talk and has a subcutaneous syringe driver running. Her daughter is at her bedside. An examiner is present to give you information. Introduce yourself to the daughter, assess Mrs O'Connor's comfort, provide mouth care and check the syringe driver and anticipatory medicines chart. Say aloud what you are doing and why. Explain what to expect to the daughter and complete the record.
What this station tests
- Assess comfort in non-verbal patients with a behavioural tool.
- Mouth care is a core comfort measure when swallowing has stopped.
- Check but do not change syringe driver settings; use the prescribed anticipatory medicines.
- Explain noisy breathing and pauses to the family in plain language.
- Ask about wishes, religion and the family's own needs.
Sources for the clinical content
- Irish Hospice Foundation: when someone you care about is dying in hospital
- Irish Hospice Foundation: toolkit for compassionate end-of-life care
- Marie Curie: syringe drivers in palliative care
- Marie Curie: mouth care in palliative care
- NMBI: Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics
- RCSI: overseas aptitude test preparation (public topic list)
An original practice scenario with invented patients. Not an exam question.