Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jul 2019
ReviewSymptom Clusters in People Living With HIV: A Systematic Review.
An increasing number of studies regarding symptom management have begun to shift their focus from managing a single symptom to multiple symptom clusters. However, there is a lack of consistency of compositions among different studies and even in two different analyses reported in a single study within the same population. ⋯ This systematic review summarized the compositions, measures, and analytical techniques of symptom clusters for PLWH. Although this review found unstable results on the compositions of symptom clusters and it was difficult to reach a definitive conclusion, the results still implicate the necessity of developing a threshold to decide what symptoms should be included in the clusters and the use of multiple data analysis techniques to obtain stable results.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jul 2019
Disparities in Hospice Utilization for Older Cancer Patients Living in the Deep South.
Hospice utilization is an end-of-life quality indicator. The Deep South has known disparities in palliative care that may affect hospice utilization. ⋯ Hospice utilization differed by patient and hospital characteristics. Patients who were nonwhite, and nonnavigated, and hospitals with inpatient palliative care beds, were associated with no hospice. Research should focus on ways to improve hospice utilization in Deep South older cancer patients.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jul 2019
Prevalence, Severity and Correlates of Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression at the Very End of Life.
Rates of psychological symptoms for patients with serious illness are high, but there has been limited research investigating psychological symptoms at the very end of life (EOL). ⋯ Psychological symptom management at the very EOL is essential to providing comprehensive hospice care. Our study revealed that nearly half of all home hospice patients experience moderate-to-severe symptoms of anxiety and/or depression in the last week of life. Future research is needed to improve psychological symptom management at the very EOL to improve the quality of life for both patients and their families.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jul 2019
Introduction to a new Special Series for the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management - Science in Action: Evidence and opportunities for palliative care across diverse populations and care settings.
Practices to optimize palliative care delivery and new opportunities in which to integrate palliative care vary across populations and care settings. Systematic reviews are an efficient and methodologically rigorous approach to summarize existing research to identify both evidence-based best practices and new areas for future research and clinical practice. This is the introduction to a special series of articles in which members of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Research Committee report the results of circumscribed systematic reviews, which in a specific population or care setting seek to 1) summarize existing evidence for optimal palliative care practices or 2) identify opportunities where better palliative care delivery could improve patient and/or family outcomes.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jul 2019
Interprofessional Team Member Communication Patterns, Teamwork, and Collaboration in Pre-family Meeting Huddles in a Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.
Interprofessional teams often develop a care plan before engaging in a family meeting in the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (CICU)-a process that can affect the course of the family meeting and alter team dynamics but that has not been studied. ⋯ Interprofessional team members' interactions in team meetings provide important information about team dynamics, revealing potential opportunities for improved collaboration and communication in team meetings and subsequent family meetings.