Journal of pain and symptom management
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2024
Improving hospital palliative care between COVID-19 waves: A retrospective cohort study.
A specialist palliative care service in an acute hospital characterized care patterns during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were delayed referrals for minoritized ethnic groups. COVID-19 treatments (dexamethasone, anticoagulation, remdesivir) alongside service changes were introduced in the second wave. ⋯ Our findings have the potential to inform strategies that improve palliative care response and equity beyond COVID-19, and in future pandemics or crises.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2024
Developing a Scale for Home-Visit Nurses to Start End-of-life Discussions with Cancer Patients.
Home-visit nurses find it challenging to determine the appropriate time to initiate end-of-life discussions with cancer patients. ⋯ The reliability and validity of the T-EOLD is acceptable, as it is an appropriate scale that home-visit nurses can use to determine the time to initiate end-of-life discussions with cancer patients. However, further study is required to examine T-EOLD's clinical utility, both nationally and internationally.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2024
Parental Attitudes Towards Palliative Care in Pediatric Oncology: Insights from Bereaved Families.
Palliative care (PC) has shown significant growth in the US and is associated with improved patient and caregiver experiences. Nevertheless, there are concerns that PC is underutilized in pediatric oncology. Understanding parental attitudes towards PC is crucial to improving PC utilization. ⋯ Parental hesitancy should not be viewed as a barrier to PC involvement. Although parents held mixed attitudes about PC, families accepted PC, desired earlier referrals, and believed it was a doctor's obligation to offer PC. These findings highlight the need for timely PC referrals, improved education, and increased awareness of PC services to enhance the integration of PC in pediatric oncology.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2024
Improving Goal-Concordant Care in Intensive Care Unit Admissions from the Emergency Department in a Comprehensive Cancer Center.
As patients approach the end of life, discussion of their treatment goals is essential to avoid unnecessary suffering and deliver care in a manner consistent with their overall values. ⋯ Through our multipronged approach, we significantly improved the rates of ACP documentation among providers admitting patients from the ED to the ICU.