Journal of palliative medicine
-
End-of-life care has become a priority in medical education internationally. A previous study of hospice patients and staff regarding medical students teaching in a hospice showed positive responses from patients and hospice staff. However concern was expressed by some staff regarding medical students' welfare, contributing to gatekeeping by professionals. Studies have shown that medical students feel underprepared to care for the dying by the time they qualify. ⋯ We would encourage staff to not be overprotective but to support students to take every opportunity to meet with patients in a hospice.
-
The intensity and persistence of treatment-related symptoms among breast cancer survivors is incompletely understood. ⋯ Given their severity, persistence, and association with emotional burden, treatment-related symptoms among breast cancer survivors (BCS) merit greater attention toward clinical management, patient education, and longitudinal study.
-
Depression affects a quarter of palliative patients and is associated with reduced quality of life. Screening for psychological problems at key points in the patients' pathway is recommended but there is no consensus as to how to do this. ⋯ The screening question was shown to have acceptable sensitivity and specificity in a small sample of community palliative care patients. It is likely to be most useful to accurately identify those who are not depressed and identify those patients who need a more in-depth assessment of their mood.
-
Given the important role caregivers play in palliative care planning and decision making, anxiety and depression in caregivers of terminally ill cancer patients and their impact on the caregivers' evaluation of the patients' physical and psychological symptom burden were analyzed. ⋯ Integrative palliative care should offer psychooncological care for the caregivers on a routine basis to avoid misleading perspectives possibly influencing end-of-life treatment decisions.