Journal of palliative medicine
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Many hospitals offer legacy-building activities for children with serious illnesses or their family members, yet legacy-making has received little empirical attention. This descriptive cross-sectional study examined healthcare provider perceptions of legacy-making activities (e.g., memory books) currently offered by hospitals to pediatric patients and their families. ⋯ Legacy-making may enhance life and decrease suffering for dying children and their families. Healthcare professionals can facilitate opportunities for children and their families to build legacies. Additional research is needed to examine activities across different age groups and conditions, the best time to offer such activities, and associations with positive and negative outcomes for ill children, their family members, and the bereaved.
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Multicenter Study
Medical professionals' attitudes toward tube feeding for themselves or their families: a multicenter survey in Japan.
Many studies have shown a lack of advantages to tube feeding for elderly with advanced dementia, but tube feeding is still considered standard care in Japan. The aim of this study is to investigate what nutrition method health care professionals want for themselves or their families, if they fall into a bedridden state due to irreversible impaired cognition in old age. ⋯ Many doctors and nurses, especially with more frequent contact with tubefed patients, rejected tube feeding for themselves on their own deathbed, but did not always refuse this option for their families.
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To measure intensity of end-of-life (EOL) care for Medicare cancer patients and variations in care by age, gender, and race. ⋯ Seniors dying with poor-prognosis cancer experience high-intensity care with rates varying by age, gender, and race.
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Hospice and Palliative Medicine is a newly designated subspecialty of Emergency Medicine (EM). As yet, no well defined palliative care (PC) models for education or training exist. A needs assessment is the first step towards developing a curriculum. ⋯ EPs view PC skills as important for EM practice and report that they are not yet adequately educated and trained in providing PC. Domains of particular interest and targeted areas for PC skills training for EPs may include managing hospice patients, withdrawal of life support, prognostication, and pain management.
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To identify and appraise the existing evidence for the needs, experiences, and preferences for palliative and end-of-life (EOL) care in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) populations. ⋯ Existing evidence is explicit and indeed repetitive in highlighting the educational needs of health care professionals to explore sexual preferences, avoid heterosexist assumptions, and recognize the importance of partners in decision making. There is also a significant need to research LGBT experiences and refine services for patients and their caregivers.