Palliative & supportive care
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Palliat Support Care · Sep 2009
Comparative StudyQuality of life measures (EORTC QLQ-C30 and SF-36) as predictors of survival in palliative colorectal and lung cancer patients.
Self-reported health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important predictor of survival alongside clinical variables and physicians' prediction. This study assessed whether better prediction is achieved using generic (SF-36) HRQoL measures or cancer-specific (EORTC QLQ-C30) measures that include symptoms. ⋯ HRQoL contributes significantly to prediction of survival. Generic measures are at least as useful as disease-specific measures including symptoms. Intercorrelations between HRQoL variables and between HRQoL and clinical variables makes it difficult to identify prime predictors. We need to identify variables that are as independent of each other as possible to maximize predictive power and produce more consistent results.
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Palliat Support Care · Sep 2009
Comparative StudyValidation of the Demoralization Scale in an Irish advanced cancer sample.
This article presents a validation study of the Demoralization Scale, a 24-item, 5-point response questionnaire developed by Kissane et al. in 2004 to assess demoralization in advanced cancer patients. ⋯ The results of the current study show that, in an Irish palliative care context, demoralization is not differentiated from depression. Additional factor analytic studies are needed to validate the Demoralization Scale.
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Palliat Support Care · Sep 2009
Attitudes of Quebec doctors toward sedation at the end of life: an exploratory study.
The induction of sedation at the end of life is a much debated practice and not very documented. The goal of this study was to explore the practice from both a clinical and ethical point of view. ⋯ There are still very few guidelines regarding end-of-life sedation in Québec, and its normative framework is more implicit than explicit. It should be noted that most of the respondents regarded sedation and euthanasia as two distinct practices.
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Palliat Support Care · Sep 2009
Providing care and sharing expertise: reflections of nurse-specialists in palliative home care.
This study explored the experiences, perspectives, and reflections of five nurse-specialists in palliative home care, whose dual role includes caring for patients in their daily practice as well as sharing their knowledge, skills, expertise, and experiences with other home care nurses in the community. ⋯ Nurse-specialists play a key role in palliative home care as both carers and as resources of expert knowledge for other home care nurses caring for palliative patients. As the population ages, the health care system will be faced with increasing requests for high-quality palliative home care. The results of this study demonstrate that, from the perspective of the nurse-specialists of NOVA-Montréal (a nonprofit social and health service organization), nurse-specialists can work collaboratively with home care nurses to improve patients' quality of care and their quality of life. Moreover, patients and their families would benefit from the more widespread establishment of palliative care teams within community health organizations.