Palliative & supportive care
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Palliat Support Care · Aug 2020
EditorialDying patients with COVID-19: What should Hospital Palliative Care Teams (HPCTs) be prepared for?
The COVID-19 pandemic is a care crisis of unknown duration which has seemingly not yet reached its peak in many countries. A significant number of elderly and frail people and those with underlying serious illness will continue to develop severe forms of the COVID-19 infection. Most of them are not eligible for intensive care treatment but can still expect palliative care - in many cases provided by a Hospital Palliative Care Team (HPCT). Several teams have already gained experience in caring for these patients and their families, others are preparing for it. ⋯ COVID-19 patients who are not eligible for ICU treatment may have a particularly high need for palliative care. Since beds in specialist palliative care units are limited, the HPCT should be prepared to care for these patients. They may offer support in decision-making, optimize symptom control, and provide psychosocial care for patients and their families. Visiting restrictions aimed to protect the general public must be weighted against the patient's and family's suffering.
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Palliat Support Care · Aug 2020
Preparing a young palliative care unit for the COVID-19 pandemic in a teaching hospital in Ghana.
The emergence of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has necessitated an interim restructuring of the healthcare system in accordance with public health preventive measures to mitigate spread of the virus while providing essential healthcare services to the public. This article discusses how the Palliative Care Team of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Ghana has modified its services in accordance with public health guidelines. It also suggests a strategy to deal with palliative care needs of critically ill patients with COVID-19 and their families.
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Palliat Support Care · Aug 2020
Goals of care and COVID-19: A GOOD framework for dealing with uncertainty.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, more patients will require palliative and end-of-life care. In order to ensure goal-concordant-care when possible, clinicians should initiate goals-of-care conversations among our most vulnerable patients and, ideally, among all patients. ⋯ We believe that specialists within palliative care are aptly positioned to address such uncertainties, and in this article offer a relevant update to a concise framework for clinicians to plan, conduct, and evaluate goals-of-care conversations: the GOOD framework. Once familiar with this framework, palliative care clinicians may use it to educate their non-palliative care colleagues about a timely and critical component of care, now and beyond the COVID-19 era.
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Palliat Support Care · Jun 2020
Impact of the caregiver burden on the effectiveness of a home-based palliative care program: A mediation analysis.
The growing aging population and the high prevalence of several concomitant chronic diseases have contributed to the elevated rates of caregiver burden and suffering in patients. In turn, intending to relieve unnecessary pain in patients, there has been a rapid growth of outpatient palliative care programs. However, little has been studied about caregiver burden as a relevant factor potentially affecting the effectiveness of these programs. This study aimed to determine the extent of caregiver burden as a possible mediator on the effectiveness of a home-based palliative care program. ⋯ To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the role of caregiver burden in the effectiveness of a home-based palliative care program. Although further work is required, the results indicate that a patient-focused intervention does not have the same beneficial effect if the caregiver burden is not addressed. Future home-based palliative care programs should focus on caregivers as well as patients, with particular attention to psychosocial intervention on caregivers.
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Palliat Support Care · Feb 2020
Adaptation and psychometric evaluation of the short version of Family Sense of Coherence Scale in a sample of persons with cancer in the palliative stage and their family members.
For patients' entire families, it can be challenging to live with cancer during the palliative stage. However, a sense of coherence buffers stress and could help health professionals identify families that require support. Therefore, the short version of the Family Sense of Coherence Scale (FSOC-S) was translated, culturally adapted, and validated in a Swedish sample. ⋯ The FSOC-S has satisfactory measurement properties to assess family sense of coherence in persons with cancer and their family members. FSOC-S could be used to identify family members who experience low levels of perceived family sense of coherence which provides health care professionals with insight into families' needs and ability to live with cancer in the palliative stage.