Journal of palliative medicine
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The "International Paediatric Palliative Care Course" (IPPCC) was held for the second time in Germany. The goals of the course were to impart knowledge and skills, to share experience and network, and to improve multiprofessional work. ⋯ The IPPCC was designed to meet the challenges arising for the multiprofessional participants coming from a variety of professions, countries with diverse resources, needs, and approaches to practice. Future courses might include additional sessions on research, development of pediatric palliative care services, as well as discipline-specific sessions. Funding is necessary to specifically support professionals coming from low-income economies.
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Multicenter Study
An educational intervention to improve resident comfort with communication at the end of life.
Approximately 20% of deaths in the United States occur in the intensive care unit (ICU). Physician trainees lack the practical communication skills required for end-of-life care, including establishing patient preferences, participating in shared decision making, discussing prognosis, and delivering bad news. Utilizing facilitated, case-based, peer interactions, we sought to assess the feasibility and impact of a novel resident curriculum in end-of-life education. ⋯ The teaching sessions offered in this study were well-attended and well-received by residents. Our curriculum impacted resident reports of comfort with specific topics in end-of-life care, including discussions of code status and comfort care. Furthermore, we found that this curriculum, although brief, demonstrated a small impact on resident reports of self-efficacy for communication. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of incorporating end-of-life communication skills training into an existing internal medicine resident curriculum.
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Multicenter Study
Application of the VALUE communication principles in ACTIVE hospice team meetings.
The ACTIVE (Assessing Caregivers for Team Intervention through Video Encounters) intervention uses technology to enable family caregivers to participate in hospice interdisciplinary team (IDT) meetings from geographically remote locations. Previous research has suggested that effective communication is critical to the success of these meetings. The purpose of this study was to explore communication in ACTIVE IDT meetings involving family caregivers and to assess the degree to which hospice teams use specific communication principles (summarized in the mnemonic VALUE: value, acknowledge, listen, understand, and elicit), which have been supported in previous research in intensive care settings. ⋯ This analysis suggests an opportunity for improving support for family members during ACTIVE IDT meetings. Members of hospice IDTs should remain aware of the opportunity for additional attention to the emotional realities of the hospice experience for family caregivers and could improve support for family caregivers during IDT meetings by ensuring that messages used to exemplify VALUE principles during team-family communication are of a high quality.