Journal of palliative medicine
-
In recent years, intensive care for cancer patients has improved and treatment of critically ill cancer patients has become increasingly aggressive over time. However, not all cancer patients would benefit from aggressive care, especially those with late-stage cancer. ⋯ Among late-stage lung cancer patients with sepsis-related respiratory failure, those with lower SOFA scores seemed to have better survival rate and may benefit from intensive care in the ICU. Early palliative care should be considered for all patients with advanced lung cancer, and hospice care is suggested for those with sepsis-respiratory failure and high SOFA scores.
-
While caring for critically ill and terminal patients can elicit grief symptoms in health care professionals, few studies have examined oncologists' grief over patient loss using a qualitative approach to inquiry. ⋯ Effective interventions to help oncologists cope with grief must identify the expectation gaps between physicians and patients when it comes to end-of-life care.
-
After years of the palliative care community calling for more open access to hospice services, pediatric patients are now eligible to receive simultaneous hospice services and disease-directed therapy. We report on five types of challenges that our team has experienced when implementing concurrent care, illustrated through case studies of three medically complex pediatric patients.
-
Children admitted to pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) face potentially life limiting conditions. The toll on heath care professionals caring for these children is significant and often overlooked. There is a potential need for increased staff support, and facilitated peer support sessions could be an effective management tool, but few studies specifically evaluate this multidisciplinary population. The purpose of this pilot study is to evaluate the current rates of grief and burnout among health care professionals in our PICU, and explore facilitated support sessions as a method of reducing grief perceptions and burnout among providers. ⋯ While facilitated peer support did not reduce grief and burnout scores among our PICU interdisciplinary staff, many factors could have affected results, including small sample size, potentially different participants across sessions, timing of sessions, and the timing of administration of posttest instruments. Additionally, even though not statistically significant, the area of personal growth showed a trend toward improvement, indicating an area for further research.
-
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal, neurological disease, which can potentially impact mental health as well as the adaptation process of people who are affected. Most of the results available are cross-sectional. The aim of this study was to study the evolution of coping strategies, Quality of Life (QoL), and mental health in a sample of ALS patients. ⋯ This study, the first to evaluate psychosocial aspects of ALS over time, underlines the importance of global, multidisciplinary, and adapted care.