Journal of palliative medicine
-
A majority of cancer-bereaved siblings report long-term unresolved grief, thus it is important to identify factors that may contribute to resolving their grief. ⋯ Siblings' perception that it was not a peaceful death and poor communication with family, friends, and healthcare increased the risk for unresolved grief among the siblings.
-
One goal of pediatric palliative care is to maintain quality of life for children and their families. Quality-of-life investigations may be enhanced by considering clinically important metrics in addition to statistical significance. ⋯ In considering quality-of-life analyses for pediatric palliative care programmatic improvements, providers may consider analyzing not only for statistical significance in collective data sets but also for clinically important difference over time.
-
To describe our institutional experience with a four-week pediatric HPM elective rotation and its impact on residents' self-rated competencies. ⋯ A pediatric HPM elective can significantly increase residents' self-rated competency. Such rotations are an under-realized opportunity in developing the primary HPM skills of pediatricians, but wider adoption is restricted by the limited availability of pediatric HPM rotations and limited elective time during training.
-
The vast majority of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer present with advanced-stage disease with a five-year survival rate less than 50%. Studies have shown that in the past, gynecologic oncologists were not routinely collaborating with palliative care physicians resulting in goals of care planning often not occurring until the last 30 days before death. ⋯ We brought together a team of gynecologic oncology and palliative care experts to collate practical pearls for the care of women with epithelial ovarian cancer. In this article, we use a "Top 10" format to highlight issues that may help palliative care physicians understand a patient's prognosis, address common misconceptions about ovarian cancer, and improve the quality of shared decision making and goals-of-care discussions.