Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2021
Drug information needs of health care professionals in palliative care: a retrospective evaluation of a palliative care drug information service.
Drug therapy is an integral part of palliative care but pharmacotherapy can be challenging for health care professionals. Access to information is essential for health care providers to choose the best drug treatment for an individual patient. A drug information service can support health care professionals to obtain appropriate, unbiased information. ⋯ The information needs on palliative care pharmacotherapy seem to be particularly high among physicians. The demand for information in the area of application technology is particularly apparent and demonstrates a therapeutic gap in terms of availability of suitable preparations as well as necessary information.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2021
Hiccups in Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy: A Cross-Sectional Study.
Hiccups are a symptom in cancer patients but it's less researched. ⋯ The results of the study showed that over one-fifth of cancer patients suffered from hiccups. This situation reveals that hiccups are an important symptom that needs to be carefully emphasised in oncology practice.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2021
Prioritization of Pediatric Palliative Care Field-Advancement Activities in the United States: Results of a National Survey.
The field of pediatric palliative care (PPC) continues to encounter challenges and opportunities to improving access to high-quality PPC services. In early 2019, a workshop identified 11 potential "next step" actions, and subsequently a national survey-based poll of members of the PPC community was conducted to prioritize these potential actions in terms of their "actionable importance." ⋯ Those seeking to advance the field of PPC should take into account the findings from this study, which suggest that certain actions are more likely to have a beneficial impact on moving the field forward.
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) first emerged in China in December 2019 and was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. Clinicians around the world looked to cities that first experienced major surges to inform their preparations to prevent and manage the impact the pandemic would bring to their patients and health care systems. Although this information provided insight into how COVID-19 could affect the Canadian palliative care system, it remained unclear what to expect. ⋯ Despite warnings of increased clinical loads, as well as widespread shortages of staff, personal protection equipment, medications, and inpatient beds, the calls to action by international colleagues to support the palliative care needs of patients with COVID-19 were not realized in Toronto. This article explores the effects of the pandemic on Toronto's palliative care planning and reports of clinical load and capacity, beds, staffing and redeployment, and medication and PPE shortages. The Toronto palliative care experience illustrates the international need for strategies to ensure the integration of palliative care into COVID-19 management, and to optimize the use of palliative care systems during the pandemic.