Journal of palliative medicine
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Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) are routine tasks considered essential to a professional practice. An EPA can serve as a performance-based outcome that a clinical supervisor would progressively entrust a learner to perform. ⋯ Near uniform agreement from a national group of palliative medicine physicians provides strong validation for the set of 12 EPAs.
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End-of-life decisions (ELDs) have been investigated in several care settings, but rarely in pediatric oncology. ⋯ In two-thirds of cases, ELDs preceded the death of a child with cancer. This is the first study providing insights into the characteristics of ELDs from a pediatric oncologist's point of view.
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"Chemical coping" is a commonly used term in the pain and palliative care literature, but is heterogeneously defined. We conducted a Delphi survey among palliative care and pain specialists internationally to identify a consensus definition for "chemical coping with opioids" and warning signs for chemical coping. ⋯ Our expert panel reached a consensus definition for chemical coping and related warning signs, which may help clinicians and researchers to identify patients at risk of opioid misuse.
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Numerous studies have focused on the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer patients with brain metastases. However, to our knowledge, few have sought to examine outcomes in patients who required whole brain radiation and developed radiation-refractory disease. ⋯ Non-small cell lung cancer patients with radiation-refractory brain metastases represent a small subgroup who have a short survival and who appear to derive minimal benefit from systemic cancer therapy.