Journal of palliative medicine
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Evidence supports palliative care effectiveness. Given workforce constraints and the costs of new services, payers and providers need help to prioritize their investments. They need to know which patients to target, which personnel to hire, and which services best improve outcomes. ⋯ Palliative care improves cancer, CHF, COPD, and dementia outcomes. Effective models include nurses, social workers, and home-based components, and a focus on communication, psychosocial support, and the patient or caregiver experience. High-quality research on intervention costs and cost outcomes in palliative care is limited.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The Effect of 5 Minutes of Mindful Breathing to the Perception of Distress and Physiological Responses in Palliative Care Cancer Patients: A Randomized Controlled Study.
Palliative cancer patients suffer from high levels of distress. There are physiological changes in relation to the level of perceived distress. ⋯ Five-minute MB is a quick, easy to administer, and effective therapy for rapid reduction of distress in palliative setting. There is a need for future study to establish the long-term efficacy of the therapy.
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Respiratory symptoms, dyspnea, cough, and death rattle, are common and distressing in advanced cancer patients. Palliation of respiratory symptoms is important to improve quality of life in cancer patients and their families/caregivers. Currently published clinical guidelines for the management of these respiratory symptoms in cancer patients did not cover the topics comprehensively or were not based on formal process for the development of clinical guidelines. ⋯ More future clinical researches and continuous guideline updates are required to improve the quality of respiratory symptom management in cancer patients.
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Many patients around the globe do not have access to pain treatment. A series of workshops on the availability and rational use of opioids in Latin America (LA) were implemented. ⋯ Limited access to pain treatment is multifactorial, including restrictive laws and regulations. Strategies to eliminate barriers need to be broad and include clinical and government representatives to be effective. It may take several years before results are observed.