Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Oct 2016
Capturing the palliative homecare experience from bereaved caregivers though qualitative survey data:Towards informing quality improvement.
Measuring palliative care experience using patient-reported outcomes is becoming important for assessing and improving quality, although most validated outcome tools solely use scaled questions. ⋯ The qualitative survey data in this study provided key recommendations toward making care more responsive to the needs of dying patients and their families. Capturing the narrative responses of bereaved caregivers is feasible and informative for palliative care program development.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Oct 2016
Emerging Collaboration Between Palliative Care Specialists and Mechanical Circulatory Support Teams: A Qualitative Study.
Despite national requirements mandating collaboration between palliative care specialists and mechanical circulatory support (MCS) teams at institutions that place destination therapy ventricular assist devices, little is known about the nature of those collaborations or outcomes for patients and families. ⋯ Although the structure of collaboration varies between institutions, collaboration between MCS teams and palliative care specialists is increasing and often preceded the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services requirement. Overall impressions of palliative care specialists are highly positive, with perceptions of improved patient and family experience and decreased burden on MCS team members.
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PC-FACS(FastArticleCriticalSummaries for Clinicians inPalliativeCare) provides hospice and palliative care clinicians with concise summaries of the most important findings from more than 100 medical and scientific journals. If you have colleagues who would benefit from receiving PC-FACS, please encourage them to join the AAHPM at aahpm.org. Comments from readers are welcomed at pc-facs@aahpm.org.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Oct 2016
Observational StudyPalliative Care Specialist Consultation Is Associated with Supportive Care Quality in Advanced Cancer.
Although recent randomized controlled trials support early palliative care for patients with advanced cancer, the specific processes of care associated with these findings and whether these improvements can be replicated in the broader health care system are uncertain. ⋯ Early palliative care specialist consultation is associated with better quality of supportive care in three advanced cancers, predominantly driven by improvements in information and care planning. This study supports the effectiveness of early palliative care consultation in three common advanced cancers within the Veterans Affairs Health System and provides a greater understanding of what care processes palliative care teams influence.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Oct 2016
Randomized Controlled TrialRandomized Pilot Trial of a Telephone Symptom Management Intervention for Symptomatic Lung Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers.
Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers affecting both men and women and is associated with high symptom burden and psychological distress. Lung cancer patients' family caregivers also show high rates of distress. However, few interventions have been tested to alleviate significant problems of this population. ⋯ Findings suggest that our brief telephone-based psychosocial intervention is not efficacious for symptomatic lung cancer patients and their family caregivers. Next steps include examining specific intervention components in relation to study outcomes, mechanisms of change, and differing intervention doses and modalities.