Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · May 2017
Review Meta AnalysisExperiences and perspectives of older people regarding advance care planning: A meta-synthesis of qualitative studies.
Studies have indicated that family members or health professionals may not know or predict their older relatives' or patients' health preferences. Although advance care planning is encouraged for older people to prepare end-of-life care, it is still challenging. ⋯ Older people's perspectives and experiences of advance care planning were varied and often conflicted; cultural differences amplified variances among older people. Truthful information, available resources, and family support are needed to enable older people to maintain dignity at the end of life. The views of life and death for older people from different cultures should be compared to assist health professionals to understand older people's attitudes toward advance care planning, and thus to develop appropriate strategies to promote advance care planning in different cultures.
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Palliative medicine · May 2017
ReviewThe under reporting of recruitment strategies in research with children with life-threatening illnesses: A systematic review.
Researchers report difficulties in conducting research with children and young people with life-limiting conditions or life-threatening illnesses and their families. Recruitment is challenged by barriers including ethical, logistical and clinical considerations. ⋯ All stages of recruitment were under reported. Transparency in reporting of participant identification, invitation and consent is needed to enable researchers to understand research implications, bias risk and to whom results apply. Research is needed to explore why consenting participants decide to take part or not and their experiences of research recruitment.
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Palliative medicine · May 2017
Comparative StudyCaregiver characteristics and bereavement needs: Findings from a population study.
Globally, most care for people with life-limiting illnesses is provided by informal caregivers. Identifying characteristics of caregivers that may have unmet needs and negative outcomes can help provide better support to facilitate adjustment. ⋯ Spousal caregivers are different from other caregivers, with more intense needs that are not fully met. These have implications for bereavement, health and social services.
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Palliative medicine · May 2017
Sympathy, empathy, and compassion: A grounded theory study of palliative care patients' understandings, experiences, and preferences.
Compassion is considered an essential element in quality patient care. One of the conceptual challenges in healthcare literature is that compassion is often confused with sympathy and empathy. Studies comparing and contrasting patients' perspectives of sympathy, empathy, and compassion are largely absent. ⋯ Although sympathy, empathy, and compassion are used interchangeably and frequently conflated in healthcare literature, patients distinguish and experience them uniquely. Understanding patients' perspectives is important and can guide practice, policy reform, and future research.
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Palliative medicine · May 2017
Electronic palliative care coordination systems: Devising and testing a methodology for evaluating documentation.
The need to improve coordination of care at end of life has driven electronic palliative care coordination systems implementation across the United Kingdom and internationally. No approaches for evaluating electronic palliative care coordination systems use in practice have been developed. ⋯ This study reports the first methodology for evaluating how and when electronic palliative care coordination systems documentation is occurring. It raises questions about what can be drawn from routine data collected through electronic palliative care coordination systems and outlines considerations for future evaluation. Future evaluations should consider work processes of health professionals using electronic palliative care coordination systems.