Journal of pain and symptom management
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2013
Multicenter StudyAdvance care planning beyond advance directives: perspectives from patients and surrogates.
Advance care planning (ACP) has focused on documenting life-sustaining treatment preferences in advance directives (ADs). The ADs alone may be insufficient to prepare diverse patients and surrogates for complex medical decisions. ⋯ Beyond ADs, patients and surrogates recommend several additional steps to prepare for medical decision making including using past experiences to identify values, verifying that the surrogate understands their role, deciding whether to grant surrogates leeway, and informing other family and friends of one's wishes. Future ACP interventions should consider incorporating these additional ACP activities.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2013
Multicenter StudyThe Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT) for use in palliative and end-of-life care at home: a validation study.
Family carers need to be supported in their central role of caring for patients at the end of life, but brief practical tools to assess their support needs have been missing. To address this gap, we developed a brief evidence-based Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT) suitable for everyday practice. ⋯ The CSNAT is a valid tool for the direct measurement of carers' support needs. It combines comprehensiveness of content with feasibility of administration and has utility both as a research tool and a tool for everyday palliative care practice.