The American journal of hospice & palliative care
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Apr 2018
Pain Management Concerns From the Hospice Family Caregivers' Perspective.
Pain management is a challenging task for family caregivers in home hospice care. However, there are limited studies that examine the challenges regarding pain management in hospice care from family caregivers' perspectives. ⋯ The study provided an investigation on hospice family caregivers' difficulties in pain management. The results can inform health-care providers and researchers of family caregivers' challenges and provide insights for future designs of educational tools targeting pain management strategies, so that family caregivers can perform pain management effectively at home.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Mar 2018
Pilot Study of an Interprofessional Palliative Care Curriculum: Course Content and Participant-Reported Learning Gains.
The National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care Clinical Practice Guidelines recommend that palliative care clinicians work together as interprofessional teams. We created and piloted a 9-month curriculum that focused on 3 related domains: (1) patient-centered, narrative communication skills; (2) interprofessional team practice; and (3) metrics and systems integration. The multifaceted curriculum was delivered through 16 webinars, 8 online modules, 4 in-person workshops, reflective skill practice, written reflections, and small group online discussions. ⋯ This curriculum demonstrated success in increasing perceived skills for interprofessional palliative care clinicians in advanced communication, team practice, and metrics and system integration.
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End-of-life (EOL) care intensity is known to vary by secular and geographic patterns. US physicians receive less aggressive EOL care than the general population, presumably the result of preferences shaped by work-place experience with EOL care. ⋯ Occupations with likely exposure to child development, death/bereavement, and naturalistic influences demonstrated lower EOL care intensity. These findings may inform patients and clinicians navigating choices around individual EOL care preferences.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Mar 2018
ReviewToward Mentoring in Palliative Social Work: A Narrative Review of Mentoring Programs in Social Work.
Mentoring by an experienced practitioner enhances professional well-being, promotes resilience, and provides a means of addressing poor job satisfaction and high burnout rates among medical social workers. This is a crucial source of support for social workers working in fields with high risk of compassion fatigue and burnout like palliative care. Implementing such a program, however, is hindered by differences in understanding and application of mentoring practice. ⋯ Common themes in prevailing mentoring practices help identify key elements for the design of an effective mentoring program in medical social work. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings upon clinical practice in palliative care and on sustaining such a program.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Mar 2018
Factors Associated With End-of-Life Planning in Huntington Disease.
Knowledge of one's gene status for adult onset conditions provides opportunity to make advance end-of-life (EOL) plans. The purposes of these analyses were to (1) determine the prevalence of EOL plans, including advance directives (ADs) among persons across 3 stages of Huntington disease (HD) and (2) examine factors associated with having ADs in this sample. ⋯ Health-care providers should develop specific interventions early in the disease process to increase ADs in this population.