Journal of palliative medicine
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Pain, dyspnea, and depression are highly troubling near the end of life. ⋯ Factors associated with common, burdensome symptoms in a national sample suggest clinical and population strategies for targeting symptom assessment and management.
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Family conferences are an essential component of high-quality ICU care and an important skill for physicians. For residents, intensive care unit (ICU) rotations represent an opportunity to learn to conduct family conferences, and residents are already familiar with an approach for learning ICU procedures with steps of increasing responsibility organized as a module. ⋯ This five-component module for teaching family conferences was rated as acceptable by most respondents, but significant barriers to successful implementation must be addressed before this is likely to be an effective teaching method.
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Heart failure (HF) affects 5.1 million U.S. citizens with approximately half dying within 5 years of diagnosis, but many never receive palliative care consults or interventions. ⋯ Many healthcare providers are unsure when to consult nonhospice palliative care (NHPC) teams for patients with chronic diseases. The findings of this study are important, as they suggest an RRAT can assist with identifying patients with HF in need of NHPC consults.