Journal of palliative medicine
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Review
Communication About Dying, Death, and Bereavement: A Systematic Review of Children's Literature.
Children's books have the potential to facilitate communication about death for children living with a serious illness and for children coping with the death of a loved one. ⋯ Storybooks can be a helpful tool to introduce communication about dying and death with children. Gaps exist in current children's literature to effectively enable children to reflect on their own dying process. A general summary of available books is provided to assist those caring for children and families facing end-of-life issues.
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The physician orders for life-sustaining treatment (POLST) form allows seriously ill individuals to express their preferences for end-of-life treatments. Despite increased POLST use, little is known about the quality of completed forms. ⋯ We found 30.4% of POLST forms for nursing home residents were not complete or documented clinically contradictory treatment preferences. Improvement in the quality of POLST forms is needed.
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Adolescent and young adult oncology (AYAO) patients often receive intensive medical care and experience significant symptoms at the end of life (EOL). ⋯ Involvement of the PC team was associated with the receipt of less intensive treatments and fewer deaths in the ICU.
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Adolescents and early young adults (AYAs) with cancer are at high risk for poor outcomes. Positive psychological responses such as benefit-finding may buffer the negative impacts of cancer but are poorly understood in this population. ⋯ AYAs with cancer identify more benefits than burdens throughout cancer treatment and demonstrate rapid maturation of perspectives. These findings not only inform communication practices with AYAs but also suggest opportunities for interventions to potentially improve outcomes.