Journal of pain and symptom management
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2022
Participatory development of a modular advance care planning program in pediatric palliative care (MAPPS).
Decision-making in pediatric palliative care concerns mainly children without decision-making capacity. It has to balance the child's best interests, parental responsibility and the impact on the family system. ⋯ Parents and professionals combined their perspectives on reflecting goals of care and the complexity of pedACP. They perceived the resulting modular program as suitable for meeting the individual needs of patients, families and professional stakeholders.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2022
Comparison of Depressive Symptom Outcomes in Hospitalized Adult Cancer Patients Receiving Music Therapy or Massage Therapy.
Depressive symptoms are prevalent and associated with greater healthcare utilization among hospitalized adults with cancer. Music therapy and massage therapy are available at many National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Designated Cancer Centers and recommended by the American Society of Clinical Oncology for depressive symptoms, but a paucity of studies have compared these two therapies. ⋯ Among hospitalized adult cancer patients, both music therapy and massage therapy were associated with reduced depressive symptoms, but music therapy was associated with a greater reduction than massage therapy.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2022
Incorporating the patient and caregiver voice in palliative care quality measure development.
Despite rapid growth in outpatient palliative care, we lack an understanding of patient and caregiver experiences of care received in this context. ⋯ In general, question wording and response options did not present challenges to understanding content. Respondents ascribed a variety of meanings to the concepts, validating that the measures capture a range of experiences. However, the referenced timeframe of three months was more difficult to answer for some questions than others. Implications for research, policy or practice: Based on the findings from the cognitive testing, the survey items are being tested as part of a national study to understand the quality of care for patients. These measures may be used in the future by Medicare to help outpatient palliative care programs improve their care.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2022
Observational StudyIdentification of Palliative Care needs in cancer patients in a Surgical Emergency Centre.
Advanced cancer is associated with a significant symptom burden, and timely identification of palliative care (PC) needs, and provision of appropriate PC can improve treatment outcomes, reduce healthcare cost, and enhance patient and family satisfaction with care. Several tools have been used to identify PC needs in different clinical settings and patient groups. ⋯ Patients with PC needs comprise a significant proportion of SEC cancer admissions. This study shows the clear need for investment in staff and infrastructure to provide integrated palliative and end-of-life care as part of surgical services. The SPICTTM and SQ were shown to predict for early death in this cohort. Further validation of PC needs assessment tools is needed to guide the cost-effective implementation of PC services in low resource settings.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2022
Pediatric palliative care parents' distress, financial difficulty, and child symptoms.
Parents of patients with a serious illness experience psychological distress, which impacts parents' wellbeing and, potentially, their ability to care for their children. Parent psychological distress may be influenced by children's symptom burden and by families' financial difficulty. ⋯ Parent psychological distress was associated with parent-reported patient symptoms and financial difficulty. Future work should examine these relationships longitudinally, and whether interventions to improve symptom management and ameliorate financial difficulties improve parental outcomes.