Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Sep 2017
Is it acceptable to video-record palliative care consultations for research and training purposes? A qualitative interview study exploring the views of hospice patients, carers and clinical staff.
Research using video recordings can advance understanding of healthcare communication and improve care, but making and using video recordings carries risks. ⋯ Video-based research is an acceptable and worthwhile way of investigating communication in palliative medicine. Situated judgements should be made about when it is appropriate to involve individual patients and carers in video-based research on the basis of their level of vulnerability and ability to freely consent.
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Palliative medicine · Sep 2017
"Hope for the best, prepare for the worst": A qualitative interview study on parents' needs and fears in pediatric advance care planning.
Pediatric advance care planning is advocated by healthcare providers because it may increase the chance that patient and/or parent wishes are respected and thus improve end-of-life care. However, since end-of-life decisions for children are particularly difficult and charged with emotions, physicians are often afraid of addressing pediatric advance care planning. ⋯ Despite a need for pediatric advance care planning, it is perceived as challenging. Needs-adjusted content and process and continuity of communication should be a main focus in pediatric advance care planning. Future research should focus on strategies that facilitate parent engagement in pediatric advance care planning to increase the benefit for the families.
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Palliative medicine · Sep 2017
Training hospital staff on spiritual care in palliative care influences patient-reported outcomes: Results of a quasi-experimental study.
Spiritual care is reported to be important to palliative patients. There is an increasing need for education in spiritual care. ⋯ The effects of spiritual care training can be measured using patient-reported outcomes and seemed to indicate a positive effect on the quality of care. Future research should focus on optimizing the spiritual care training to identify the most effective elements and developing strategies to ensure long-term positive effects. This study was registered at the Dutch Trial Register: NTR4559.