Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Oct 2019
Courses of change in good emotional preparedness for death and accurate prognostic awareness and their associations with psychological distress and quality of life in terminally ill cancer patients' last year of life.
Emotional preparedness for death is a distinct but related concept to prognostic awareness (PA). Both allow patients to prepare psychologically and interpersonally for death, but they have primarily been examined in cross-sectional studies. ⋯ Good emotional preparedness for death and accurate PA remained largely stable and improved substantially, respectively, in cancer patients' last year. Both measures were significantly associated with psychological distress. Health care professionals should not only cultivate accurate PA but also promote cancer patients' emotional preparedness for death, which may improve their psychological well-being.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Oct 2019
Use of auditing and feedback in an outpatient hospice setting: Quality and pharmacoeconomic oversight.
Clinicians play an important role in containing pharmaceutical spending at the patient level, as well as ensuring efficacy and quality outcomes, yet little research has examined how to achieve this goal. ⋯ An active, hospice P&T Committee featuring A&F can significantly affect medication costs for a hospice program while maintaining or improving patient outcomes.