Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Dec 2022
DYSPHAGIA IN SOLID TUMORS OUTSIDE THE HEAD, NECK OR UPPER GI TRACT: CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS.
Dysphagia is common in cancer, but underlying pathophysiology and manifestations within patients are unknown. ⋯ Dysphagia management in those with cancer requires robust assessment to uncover clinically important needs like food texture modification and safe swallowing advice. Better assessment tools should be developed for this purpose. Oral health problems should be routinely screened in this population since they exacerbate dysphagia.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Dec 2022
Psychometric Evaluation of the Veterans Affairs Bereaved Family Survey in Community Nursing Homes.
For over a decade, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has used the Bereaved Family Survey (BFS) to measure the quality of end-of-life (EOL) care in VA inpatient settings. In 2019, VA developed a revised version of the BFS to evaluate the quality of EOL care for Veterans who received hospice services in VA-contracted community nursing homes (CNHs). ⋯ Our findings provide support for use of the BFS-CNH to evaluate the quality of EOL care provided to Veterans in CNHs and lay the foundation for future comparisons of BFS ratings between VA inpatient and CNH settings.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Dec 2022
Prognostic Understanding and Goals of Palliative Radiotherapy: A Qualitative Study.
There is a paucity of data describing patients' expectations of goals of palliative radiotherapy (RT) and overall prognosis. ⋯ Unclear perceptions of goals of treatment and prognosis may motivate some patients to pursue unnecessarily aggressive cancer treatments. Patients desire prognostic information from their doctors, including radiation oncologists, who are important contributors to goals of care discussions and may improve patient understanding and well-being by using restorative rather than combat-oriented language.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Dec 2022
Creating KidneyPal: A Specialty-Aligned Palliative Care Service for People with Kidney Disease.
Patients with kidney disease have notable unmet palliative care needs and represent an underserved population for specialty palliative care teams. ⋯ The creation of KidneyPal led to us to serve a new cohort of patients with specialty palliative care. We grew over time to serve the full range of patients with kidney disease as defined by our nephrology service lines. We succeeded in doing so by embedding in nephrology and building relationships with those caring for people with kidney disease while tailoring our service and interventions over time.