Journal of pain and symptom management
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2021
Palliative care in Latin America: Are we making any progress? Assessing development over time using macro indicators.
Monitoring and reporting palliative care development serves to identify progress as well as remaining challenges for improvement. ⋯ Significant advances in palliative care development in Latin America have been achieved. The ALCP-II Index is useful for assessing and comparing palliative care development across countries.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2021
Association between loneliness and the frequency of using online peer support groups among cancer patients with minor children: a cross-sectional web-based study.
Cancer patients with minor children are increasing; however, they do not receive sufficient support. ⋯ Frequent use of online peer support groups was associated with less loneliness among cancer patients with minor children.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2021
Workforce Planning for Community-based Palliative Care Specialist Teams using Operations Research.
Many countries have aging populations. Thus, the need for palliative care will increase. However, the methods to estimate optimal staffing for specialist palliative care teams are rudimentary as yet. ⋯ Historical, current, and projected data can be used with operations research to forecast staffing levels for specialist palliative care teams under various scenarios. The forecast can be updated as new data emerge, applied to other populations, and used to test alternative delivery models.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2021
Providing End-of-Life Care for Patients With Left Ventricular Assist Devices: Experience of a Hospice Agency.
Patients with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) need expert palliative care at the end of life. In the U.S., hospice may provide this care, but few patients enroll, and information about hospice experience with LVAD-implanted patients is limited. ⋯ To provide specialist palliative care to LVAD-implanted patients, hospices must be prepared to manage complex and highly varied needs. To do this, hospices must have adequate staff support and access to acute care.