Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2021
Effects of implementation of a standardised Palliative Care Pathway for patients with advanced cancer in a hospital: a prospective pre- and post-intervention study.
Early integration of oncology and palliative care has been recommended to improve patient outcomes at the end of life. A standardized Palliative Care Pathway, consisting of a structured electronic medical checklist, may support such integration. ⋯ Implementation of a Palliative Care Pathway had no overall positive effect on place of death and several aspects of advance care planning. Start of a Palliative Care Pathway in the last months of life may be too late to improve end-of-life care. Future research should focus on strategies enabling earlier start of palliative care interventions.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2021
Virtual Geritalk: Improving serious illness communication of clinicians who care for older adults.
High quality communication is essential to older adults' medical decision-making, quality of life, and adjustment to serious illness. Studies have demonstrated that Geritalk, a two day (16 hours total) in-person communication skills training improves self-assessed preparedness, skill acquisition, and sustained practice of communication skills. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Geritalk was adapted to a virtual format (four days, 10 hours total). ⋯ We show that a virtual communication skills training is feasible and effective. Our findings suggest that the innovative virtual Geritalk course has the potential to increase access to communication skills training, improve serious illness communication skills, and in improve the quality of care received by older adults with serious illness.
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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.