Inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria and study summary
Clinically assisted hydration at the end of life is much debated by healthcare professionals (HCP), it is also a debate that has moved into the public domain, which has caused much contention and anxiety for the dying patient, relatives and Health Care Professionals. The reason for the debate, contention and anxiety, is there is a lack of good quality research, which provides the evidence that guides end of life practice. The CHELsea II trial aims to provide robust data to enable new guidance on the use of assisted hydration in this patient group. The CHELsea II trial is a cluster randomised trial (sites randomised rather than participants) comparing the standard mouthcare with Clinically Assisted Hydration (CAH) versus the standard of mouthcare only in patients who are in the last days of life. Delirium can be one of the most distressing aspects of end of life and the CHELsea II trial will uniquely address the specific issue of the use of CAH at the end-of-life and to use an evidence based approach to create a pathway for the majority of end of life patients and to asses the reduction of delirium utilising CAH in this group of patients.