Journal of palliative medicine
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People with motor neuron disease (MND) face barriers when accessing palliative care. There is a lack of research about how these barriers affect the end-of-life (EOL) and death experiences of people with MND. ⋯ The findings indicate that increased access to specialist palliative care services by people with MND is needed to improve EOL experiences.
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A question prompt sheet (QPS) is a structured list of potential questions available for patients to ask their doctor during a clinical encounter. Although it has been shown to improve physician-patient interaction during clinical consultations, there is paucity of data on its use in the palliative care setting. The aim of this study was to develop a single-page consensus list of prompt questions for use by patients attending outpatient palliative care. ⋯ A 25-item, single-page QPS was developed for use by patients attending outpatient palliative care. Further studies are needed to determine its clinical effectiveness in assisting physician-patient communication.
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There is limited research in advanced cancer patients (ACP) regarding association between objectively measured daytime activity and sleep (as measured by actigraphy), patient characteristics, and cancer symptoms (fatigue, sleep, anxiety, depression, cachexia, and symptom distress scores [SDSs]). ⋯ In ACP, lower MDTA was significantly associated with age, gender, FACT-FWB, ESAS dyspnea, HADS-anxiety, and total sleep time. Both sleep quality and cancer-related fatigue scores were strongly associated with depression and anxiety. More research is needed.
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Palliative care services (PCS) are recommended to enhance quality of care for hospitalized patients. ⋯ LT providers overwhelmingly report that PCS benefit patients and are consistent with LT goals even while patients are listed for LT. Barriers to PCS include confusion over referral criteria and describing PCS as end-of-life care by attending physicians. PCS teams may expand access for LT patients by establishing clear criteria for PCS referral and targeting educational interventions about palliative care to attendings.
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Although breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality in women in the United States, few studies focus on the supportive care needs of patients living with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). ⋯ Patients with MBC, particularly those treated with chemotherapy, may benefit from interventions to address their physical, functional, and breast cancer-related symptoms. Many do not report accurate prognostic understanding, and more frequent prognostic conversations might address this information gap.