Journal of palliative medicine
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Hospice provides a full range of services for patients near the end of life, often in the patient's own home. There are no published studies that describe patient safety incidents in home hospice care. ⋯ This is the first study to describe patient safety incidents from the experiences of hospice interdisciplinary team members. Compared with patient safety studies from other health care settings, participants recalled few incidents related to errors in evaluation, treatment, or communication by the hospice team.
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The critical need to expand and develop the palliative care evidence base was recently highlighted by the Journal of Palliative Medicine's series of articles describing the Research Priorities in Geriatric Palliative Care. The Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is uniquely positioned to address many priority areas of palliative care research. This nationally representative, ongoing, longitudinal study collects detailed survey data every 2 years, including demographics, health and functional characteristics, information on family and caregivers, and personal finances, and also conducts a proxy interview after each subject's death. The HRS can also be linked with Medicare claims data and many other data sources, e.g., U.S. Census, Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care. ⋯ In this article we present the work of this group as a potential roadmap for investigators contemplating the use of HRS data for palliative care research.
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Spiritual needs play an important role in palliative care as both a clinical dimension and a therapeutic strategy. However, recent studies have shown that the management of this dimension still remains a challenge at the clinical level of palliative care. ⋯ When patients knew the truth about their illnesses and they were treated with dignity, their most important needs were likely to be covered. These results suggest that patients receiving palliative care wish to live for the present with as much normality as possible and show only minor concern for their past and future.
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Despite recent strides in pediatric palliative care (PPC), there are few published data on community-based care of dying children. ⋯ Children who die of complex chronic conditions spend the majority of their last 6 months of life at home. Community-based PPC can contribute substantially to their care and comfort.
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Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death, and it is known many affected will have significant palliative care needs. Evidence suggests that early involvement of palliative care can translate into improvements in quality of care, quality of life, and survival. However, routine early integration is yet to be embraced as standard of care for the majority of patients, and it is unclear what lung cancer clinicians continue to perceive as the barriers to this model of care. ⋯ Early and routine involvement of palliative care in patients with incurable lung cancer is acceptable to the majority of treating clinicians. To facilitate early integration of palliative care, palliative care providers need to become front-line team members who provide a high-quality service. Lung cancer clinicians need further education as to the role and benefits of early palliative care, and how best to introduce this.