Journal of palliative medicine
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Prognostication is an important element of palliative care consultations. Research has shown that estimated survivals offered by clinicians are often inaccurate; however, few of these studies have focused on the documentation and prognostic accuracy of palliative care providers. ⋯ The prognostic accuracy of palliative care physicians in this study was similar to physician accuracy in other studies. Trends toward overestimation were also similar to those seen in previous research. Use of a template in the electronic medical record (EMR) increases documentation of estimated prognosis.
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Children with life-threatening illnesses and their families may face a myriad of medical decisions in their lifetimes. Oftentimes these complicated medical decisions cause disagreements among patients, families, and providers about what is the best course of action. Although no evidence exists, it is possible that conflict may affect subgroups of the population differently. This study aims to investigate how decisional conflict varies among racial and ethnic subgroups. ⋯ Our study is the first to describe racial and ethnic differences in decisional conflict of parents of children with life-threatening illnesses. Significant differences exist by race, ethnicity, language spoken, and diagnosis time across several subdomains of decisional conflict. These differences are important to address when creating clinical care plans, engaging in shared decision-making, and creating interventions to alleviate decisional conflict.