Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2021
Development and validation of the QUALI-PALLI-FAM questionnaire for assessing relatives' perception of quality of inpatient palliative care: A prospective cross-sectional survey.
Relatives of patients receiving palliative care are at risk for psychological and physical distress, and their perception of quality of care can influence patients' quality of life. ⋯ The QUALI-PALLI-FAM appears to be a valid, reliable, and well-accepted tool to explore relatives' perception of quality of inpatient palliative care and complements the QUALI-PALLI-PAT questionnaire. Further testing is required in various settings and countries.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2021
Associations between hospice care and "scary" family caregiver experiences.
Hospice deaths in the U.S. are increasing. Dying hospice patients may have rapidly emerging needs the hospice team cannot immediately meet, exposing family caregivers to fright-inducing (i.e., scary) situations. ⋯ Hospice care is associated with more exposures to and caregiver fear and helplessness in response to scary patient experiences. Research is needed to understand how better to support family caregivers of hospice patients to enable them to cope with common distressing symptoms of dying cancer patients. Hospice clinicians providing additional education and training about these symptoms might enable caregivers to better care for dying loved ones and reduce the stresses of end-of-life caregiving.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2021
Lack of Exposure to Palliative Care Training for Black Residents: A Study of Schools with Highest and Lowest Percentages of Black Enrollment.
The palliative medicine workforce lacks racial diversity with <5% of specialty Hospice and Palliative Medicine (HPM) fellows identifying as black. Little is known about black trainees' exposure to palliative care during their medical education. ⋯ Residents at schools with the highest black medical student enrollment lack access to palliative care training opportunities. Efforts to reduce health disparities and underrepresentation in palliative care must begin with providing palliative-focused training to physicians from under-represented minority backgrounds.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2021
Development of a brief cognitive and behavioural intervention for the management of episodic breathlessness - a Delphi survey with international experts.
Episodic breathlessness is characterized by a severe worsening of breathlessness intensity that goes beyond usual fluctuations. Episodes are usually short; therefore, nonpharmacological strategies (cognitive and behavioral) seem most promising to be beneficial. Which strategies-delivered separately or in combination-might be most effective and feasible remains unclear. ⋯ Using the consented nonpharmacological strategies, a brief cognitive and behavioral intervention was developed that balances between individualization and standardization of the intervention.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2021
Goals of care conversations don't fit in a box': Hospice Staff Experiences and Perceptions of Advance Care Planning Quality Measurement.
With rising concerns about quality of care in hospice, federal agencies recently began mandating quality measurement in hospice, including measures of advance care planning (ACP). ⋯ Hospice staff take ACP quality measurement seriously, but insufficient organizational resources and regulatory bureaucracy create challenges. Efforts to enhance ACP quality measure nuance and assess outcomes are needed to improve care.