Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2021
Transitioning From Hospital to Palliative Care at Home: Patient and Caregiver Perceptions of Continuity of Care.
Continuity of care is important at improving the patient experience and reducing unnecessary hospitalizations when transitioning across care settings, especially at the end of life. ⋯ Patients' and their caregivers' valuation of continuity of care was dependent on their stage of the hospital-to-home transition. Optimizing continuity of care requires an integrated network of providers with reliable information transfer and communication.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2021
Korean Version of the Patient Dignity Inventory: Translation and Validation in Patients with Advanced Cancer.
The goal of palliative care is to maximize the quality of life and thus maintain the dignity of patients facing problems associated with a life-threatening illness. The Patient Dignity Inventory (PDI) is an instrument used to measure various sources of distress that can impact patients' sense of dignity at the end of life. ⋯ Our findings indicate that the PDI-K is a valid and reliable instrument to measure dignity-related distress in patients with advanced cancer. This tool provides a four-factor Korean language alternative to the PDI.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2021
The Development of Palliative Care in Colombia: An analysis of geographical inequalities through the application of international indicators.
The national evaluation of an individual country is a tool used to improve the universal provision of palliative care. The evaluation of a country's internal situation, by means of an analysis of the development of palliative care by region, may also be an instrument for improvement. ⋯ Regional palliative care development is unequal and unbalanced. Applying international indicators to levels of regional development allows for the identification of geographical inequalities and highlights low palliative care development, especially in the rural areas of the country.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2021
Multicenter Study Observational StudyHow successful is parenteral oxycodone for relieving terminal cancer dyspnea compared with morphine? A multicenter prospective observational study.
Parenteral morphine is widely used for dyspnea of imminently dying cancer patients (terminal dyspnea). However, the efficacy of other opioids such as oxycodone remains largely unknown. ⋯ Parenteral oxycodone may be equally effective and safe as morphine in the treatment of terminal dyspnea in cancer patients. Future randomized controlled trials should confirm the efficacy and safety of opioids other than morphine for terminal dyspnea.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jul 2021
Development of the Oncolo-GIST ("Giving Information Strategically & Transparently") Intervention Manual for Oncologist Skills Training in Advanced Cancer Prognostic Information Communication.
Patient prognostic understanding is improved by oncologists' discussions of life expectancy. Most patients deem it important to discuss prognosis with their oncologists, but a minority of cancer patients within months of death report that they had such a discussion with their oncologist. ⋯ The Oncolo-GIST intervention was characterized as simple and potentially effective at conveying prognoses to advanced cancer patients. Future research should determine if this approach to medical communication, which distills the essence of prognostic messages clearly and simply, is associated with improvements in patients' prognostic understanding.