Journal of palliative medicine
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Even though no evidence suggests tube feeding is beneficial for individuals with advanced dementia, many are still tube fed. ⋯ The present survey shows a persistent knowledge gap among various health care professions regarding tube feeding of patients with advanced dementia. Also, there is insufficient awareness about this subject, indicating that promotion of comfort feeding by enhanced training and communication within medical teams is essential to achieving better person-centered care and preventing unnecessary suffering.
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This study identifies health care providers' perspectives on palliative care at end of life (EOL) in a neuromedicine-intensive care unit (Neuro-ICU) and barriers to providing palliative care. ⋯ Health care providers hold multiple perspectives on what they consider palliative care. Their perspectives are related systematically to different aspects of their EOL expertise. In-house training and quality initiatives could focus on unifying providers' perspectives to create a common language for understanding palliative care. Eliminating individual, intergroup, and organizational barriers is necessary for creating an optimal environment for patients and their families who find themselves, often suddenly, in a Neuro-ICU.
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Comparative Study
Assessing the Impact of a Novel Integrated Palliative Care and Medical Oncology Inpatient Service on Health Care Utilization before Hospice Enrollment.
Evidence increasingly supports the integration of specialist palliative care (PC) into routine cancer care. A novel, fully integrated PC and medical oncology inpatient service was developed at Duke University Hospital in 2011. ⋯ PC integration into an inpatient solid tumor service may not impact health care utilization during the final hospitalization before discharge to hospice. This likely reflects the greater benefits of integrating PC farther upstream from the terminal hospitalization, if one hopes to meaningfully impact utilization near the end of life.
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Review
Advance Care Planning Outcomes in African Americans: An Empirical Look at the Trust Variable.
Racial disparities in rates of hospice use, a marker of quality of end-of-life (EOL) care, have been a long-standing problem. Although distrust has been cited as a main reason for the preference of intensive EOL care among African Americans, the role of trust has not been closely analyzed in predicting EOL care in the context of advance care planning (ACP) outcomes. ⋯ Distrust has been cited as a central reason for African Americans' tendency to choose life-sustaining treatments over comfort-focused care; however, our findings do not support this hypothesis. The majority of studies found no significant differences in trust between African Americans and their White counterparts. Further, we found that trust was not associated with ACP outcomes in the majority of studies.
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Critically ill adult patients who face medical decisions often delegate others to make important decisions. Those who are authorized to make such decisions are typically family members, friends, or legally authorized representatives, often referred to as surrogates. Making medical decisions on behalf of others produces emotional distress. Spirituality and/or religion provide significant assistance to cope with this distress. We designed this study to assess the role of surrogates' spirituality and religion (S/R) coping resources during and after making medical decisions on behalf of critically ill patients. The study's aim was to understand the role that S/R resources play in coping with the lived experiences and challenges of being a surrogate. ⋯ We conclude that surrogates use several S/R and other resources to cope with stress when making decisions for critically ill adult patients. The coping resources identified in this study may guide professional chaplains and other care providers to design a patient-based and outcome-oriented intervention to reduce surrogate stress, improve communication, increase patient and surrogate satisfaction, and increase surrogate integration in patient care. We recommend ensuring that surrogates have S/R resources actively engaged in making medical decisions. Chaplains should be involved before, during, and after medical decision making to assess and address surrogate stress. An interventional research-design project to assess the effect of spiritual care on surrogate coping before, during, and after medical decision making is also recommended.