The American journal of hospice & palliative care
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Sep 2016
ReviewPatient Safety and End-of-Life Care: Common Issues, Perspectives, and Strategies for Improving Care.
The current state of the science in the fields of patient safety and palliative and end-of-life care have many issues in common. This article synthesizes recent systematic reviews and additional research on improving patient safety and end-of-life care and compares each field's perspective on common issues, both in traditional patient safety frameworks and in other areas, and how current approaches in each field can inform the other. ⋯ The synthesis demonstrates how end-of-life issues should be incorporated into patient safety initiatives. In addition, evaluating overlap and comparable issues between patient safety and end-of-life care and comparing different perspectives and improvement strategies can benefit both fields.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Sep 2016
Engaging Physician Learners Through a Web-Based Platform: Individualized End-of-Life Education.
Web-based modules provide a convenient and low-cost education platform, yet should be carefully designed to ensure that learners are actively engaged. In order to improve attitudes and knowledge in end-of-life (EOL) care, we developed a web-based educational module that employed hyperlinks to allow users access to auxiliary resources: clinical guidelines and seminal research papers. ⋯ Auxiliary resources accessible by hyperlink are an effective adjunct to web-based learning in end-of-life care.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Sep 2016
Ethical Decisions in Palliative Care: Interprofessional Relations as a Burnout Protective Factor? Results From a Mixed-Methods Multicenter Study in Portugal.
Ethical decisions are part of contemporary practices in palliative care. The need of making such decisions is associated to higher burnout levels and other work related problems among healthcare professionals. ⋯ Making ethical decisions is not associated with higher burnout levels among professionals working in Portuguese palliative care teams. This can be explained by the interprofessional decision-making process followed by these teams, which promotes a sense of shared-decision and team-based empowerment; and by the advanced level of interdisciplinary education in palliative care that these professionals have.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Sep 2016
Acceptance of Advance Directives and Palliative Care Referral for Veterans With Advanced Cancer: A Retrospective Analysis.
To evaluate the documentation of advance directive (ADs) and physician orders for life-sustaining treatment (POLST) with acceptance of palliative care (PC) services referral among patients with cancer. ⋯ We found no association of AD documentation and PC referral. Future studies should evaluate other factors that influence referral to these services.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Sep 2016
Validation of the German Version of the Quality of Dying and Death Questionnaire for Health Professionals.
To validate the Quality of Dying and Death (QoDD) instrument for health professionals (QoDD-D-MA) and to test its feasibility in 2 German palliative care units (PCUs). ⋯ Feasibility could be improved by adapting the QoDD-D-MA to create a self-assessment version and finding a solution for items that result in many missing data. Future research should validate the QoDD-D-MA in other care settings.