Palliative & supportive care
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Palliat Support Care · Dec 2018
Development and evaluation of a six-day training program in supportive oncology research.
Early career investigators have few opportunities for targeted training in supportive oncology research. To address this need, we developed, implemented, and evaluated an intensive, six-day workshop on methods in supportive oncology research for trainees and junior faculty across multiple disciplines. ⋯ A multidisciplinary team of supportive oncology researchers developed a workshop patterned after the clinical trials workshop offered jointly by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and American Association of Cancer Research. The curriculum included lectures and a mentored experience of writing a research protocol. Each year since 2015, the workshop has accepted and trained 36 early career investigators. Over the course of the workshop, participants present sections of their research protocols daily in small groups led by senior researchers, and have dedicated time to write and revise these sections. Primary outcomes for the workshop included the frequency of completed protocols by the end of the workshop, a pre- and posttest assessing participant knowledge, and follow-up surveys of the participants and their primary mentors.ResultOver three years, the workshop received 195 applications; 109 early career researchers were competitively selected to participate. All participants (109/109, 100%) completed writing a protocol by the end of their workshop. Participants and their primary mentors reported significant improvements in their research knowledge and skills. Each year, participants rated the workshop highly in terms of satisfaction, value, and likelihood of recommending it to a colleague. One year after the first workshop, most respondents (29/30, 96.7%) had either submitted their protocol or written at least one other protocol.Significance of resultsWe developed a workshop on research methods in supportive oncology. More early career investigators applied for the workshop than capacity, and the workshop was fully attended each year. Both the workshop participants and their primary mentors reported improvement in research skills and knowledge.
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Palliat Support Care · Oct 2018
Family care conferences in long-term care: Exploring content and processes in end-of-life communication.
ABSTRACTObjective:End-of-life (EoL) communication in long-term care (LTC) homes is often inadequate and delayed, leaving residents dying with unknown preferences or goals of care. Poor communication with staff contributes to families feeling unprepared, distressed, and dissatisfied with care. ⋯ As part of the Strengthening a Palliative Approach to Care (SPA-LTC) project, FCCs were implemented in four LTC sites in Ontario, Canada. The purpose of this substudy was to examine FCC content and such guiding processes as documentation and multidisciplinary staff participation.
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Palliat Support Care · Oct 2018
Association between pancreatic cancer patients' perception of their care coordination and patient-reported and survival outcomes.
People with pancreatic cancer have poor survival, and management is challenging. Pancreatic cancer patients' perceptions of their care coordination and its association with their outcomes have not been well-studied. Our objective was to determine if perception of care coordination is associated with patient-reported outcomes or survival. ⋯ Our results suggest that, while many core clinical aspects of care are perceived to be done well for pancreatic cancer patients, improvements in emotional support, referral to specialist services, and self-management education may improve patient-reported outcomes.
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Palliat Support Care · Oct 2018
Medical students' attitudes towards participating in a palliative medicine course: A new specialty in Israel.
Palliative medicine is a growing field in Israel, and its training program is still in process. The current study aimed to evaluate students' attitudes regarding a course in palliative care established in a division of oncology. ⋯ The overall satisfaction of the 45 students was high. The most contributory parts of the course were the multidisciplinary team and the complementary and alternative medicine. Participating in the staff meetings and accompanying physicians in their daily work were scored as the least contributory parts.Significance of resultsThis preliminary study demonstrated students' overall high satisfaction with the newly established palliative care course and their need for more practical skills. Future studies should investigate and evaluate educational programs in palliative care in order to establish suitable training for medical students.