Journal of palliative medicine
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Medical students' learning about end-of-life care can be categorized into three learning modalities: formal curriculum, taught in lectures; informal curriculum, conveyed through clinical experiences; and "hidden curriculum," inferred from behaviors and implicit in medical culture. In this study, we evaluated associations between survey items assessing these learning modalities and students' perceptions of their preparation, quality of education, and attitudes toward end-of-life care. ⋯ Medical students' sense of preparedness for end-of-life care and perceptions of educational quality are greater with more coursework and bedside teaching. By contrast, the hidden curriculum conveying negative messages may impair learning. Our findings suggest that implicit messages as well as intentional teaching have a significant impact on students' professional development. This has implications for designing interventions to train physicians to provide outstanding end-of-life care.
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Reports in the end-of-life literature reveal that patients and health care professionals, including social workers, nurses, and physicians, avoid discussions about preparation for such care. End-of-life care discussion barriers include, but are not limited to, professionals feeling unprepared to have the discussions and patients' lack of readiness to discuss planning for this care. ⋯ In a controlled trial of an Advanced Illness Coordinated Care Program, social workers initiated end-of-life planning discussions using the Stages of Change model (SOC). This article describes how the social workers introduced end-of-life planning discussions using the SOC conceptual structure to illustrate the application of a conceptual framework for professionals working with advanced illness populations.
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Approximately one half to two thirds of patients with cancer-related pain experience breakthrough pain (BTP) in their daily activities. ⋯ Patients with head and neck cancer do suffer a lot because of the high incidence of BTP (48%). The majority of patients suffering from BTP are not satisfied at all with the measures taken for their BTP. The majority of patients in India have head and neck cancer; we must approach this matter as a challenge and new technique and therapy should be introduced for the benefit of these patients.