Palliative medicine
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Paediatric palliative care is still often introduced late in the illness trajectory of children with life-limiting diseases. Translating palliative care into practice continues to be a challenge. ⋯ According to this second step of psychometric testing of the Paediatric Palliative Screening Scale, the strongest and most urgent necessity indicators for a palliative care approach are life expectancy and child/family preferences. These results are somewhat discrepant with results from the previous validation of the instrument as well as previous research findings.
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Palliative medicine · Jun 2014
The European Association for Palliative Care basic dataset to describe a palliative care cancer population: Results from an international Delphi process.
One of the barriers identified in palliative care research is the lack of common criteria to describe the population. ⋯ Consensus was reached on a set of core variables and how they should be recorded.
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Palliative medicine · Jun 2014
Impact of a novel online learning module on specialist palliative care nurses' pain assessment competencies and patients' reports of pain: Results from a quasi-experimental pilot study.
Pain is a complex multidimensional phenomenon moderated by consumer, provider and health system factors. Effective pain management cuts across professional boundaries, with failure to screen and assess contributing to the burden of unrelieved pain. ⋯ This pilot confers confidence of the education interventions capacity to improve specialist palliative care nurses' pain assessment practices and to reduce patient-rated pain intensity scores.
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Palliative medicine · Jun 2014
Physician-reported practices on continuous deep sedation until death: A descriptive and comparative study.
Research on continuous deep sedation until death has focused on estimating prevalence and describing clinical practice across care settings. However, evidence on sedation practices by physician specialty is scarce. ⋯ Considerable variation, often largely deviating from professional guidelines, was observed in physician-reported performance and decision-making, highlighting the importance of providing clearer guidance on the specific needs of the context in which continuous deep sedation until death is to be performed.
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Palliative medicine · Jun 2014
Patterns of diagnoses among children and young adults with life-limiting conditions: A secondary analysis of a national dataset.
Numbers of children and young people with life-limiting conditions are rising, and increasing lifespans require young adults with life-limiting condition to transit to appropriate adult services. ⋯ Non-malignant diagnoses are common in children and young adults, and services that have historically focussed on oncological care will need to widen their remit to serve this population of life-limited patients. The diagnosis determining a patient's life-limiting condition will strongly influence their palliative care service needs. Therefore, understanding the diagnostic and demographic breakdown of this population of teenagers and young adults is crucial for planning future service provision.