The Palliative care Outcome Scale outline for new & current users

The POS measures are a group of tools developed to measure Palliative care needs of patients and their families. They are validated instruments that can be used in clinical care, audit, research and training. They are widely used globally including in Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa and America. The POS measures are specifically developed for use among people with advanced diseases such as cancer, respiratory, heart, renal or liver failure, and neurological diseases. They are free to download and use, just register on our website. Here you will also find other free resources.

Below is a short summary of the generic versions available, who the measures are for, what languages they are known to be translated in to and a brief description of the measure itself. Disease specific measures are also available for download from our website.

POS measure version available	Versions to be completed by:	Known languages translated into at present	Brief description of POS measure
IPOS (Integrated POS) (Being validated in many different settings where palliative care patients may receive care)	Patient and Staff (3 day recall period and 1 week recall period)	English Currently being validated in: German Swedish Greek Romanian Israeli Japanese Chinese simplified Chinese traditional Turkish Polish French Italian Portuguese	IPOS is a new development, integrating the most important questions from POS, POS-S and the APCA African POS. It has been welcomed by patients and professionals as a more streamlined measure which is brief, yet which still captures their most important concerns - both in relation to symptoms, but also extending to information needs, practical concerns, anxiety or low mood, family anxieties and overall feeling of being at peace.
African Palliative Care Association (APCA) POS The most commonly used patient-level outcome measure used in Africa.	Staff	English Kenya- Dholuo, Kiswahili, Kikuyu Mauritania- French Namibia- Afrikaans Rwanda- French, Kinyarwanda South Africa- Xhona, Afrikaans, isiZulu, SeTswana The Gambia- French Uganda- Luganda, Runyakitara, Luo, Runyoro-rutoro, Kiswahili	APCA African POS was developed specifically for use in Africa. The main differences are that it is designed to be administered by health professionals and has a zero to five scale
POS version 1 (Original version validated with specialist palliative care patients)	Patient Staff Carer	English Chinese-Simplified- Mandarin & traditional Dutch Italian German Portuguese Portuguese (Brazilian) Punjabi Spanish Spanish (Argentina) Urdu	It has shown validity in home, hospital and hospice settings. It has demonstrated reliability and acceptability with both staff and patients and is responsive to changes in patient condition over time. It is valuable for use with patients who have palliative care needs irrespective of their diagnosis and clinical setting. The patient version of POS v1 is available in three formats: the original A4 page format, a smaller card format, and in a card format accompanied by POS-S v1.
POS version 2 (Original version validated in non-specialist palliative care settings)	Patient Staff Carer	English Chinese-Simplified- Mandarin & Traditional Dutch Italian German Portuguese Punjabi Spanish Spanish (Argentina) Urdu	Following consultation with service providers, a number of changes were implemented. These changes included: a change of title, question 7 being amended and a trigger being added. On version 2, question 7 asks if the client is feeling 'depressed'. On the patient questionnaire, question 7 also includes a trigger point, which advises the patient to report scores of 3 and 4 to their health care practitioner. Although this version can also be used with clients who have palliative care needs irrespective of diagnosis and clinical setting, version 2 is particularly valuable for use with those people with palliative care needs who are diagnosed with a chronic or progressive disorder.
POS-S (symptom list) (A way to measure a number of different symptoms, expanding Q2 in POS.) There are a number of different versions- specific to different circumstances.	Patient Staff	English Portuguese	POS-S is available as a generic patient card, renal patient card, Multiple Sclerosis patient card and Parkinson's disease patient card.

Questions? .