Journal of palliative medicine
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How parents of children with life threatening conditions draw upon religion, spirituality, or life philosophy is not empirically well described. ⋯ RSLP play a diverse and important role in the lives of most, but not all, parents whose children are receiving pediatric palliative care.
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Workforce shortages, late referrals, and palliative care program resource constraints present significant barriers to meeting the needs of hospitalized patients facing serious illnesses. The Center to Advance Palliative Care convened a consensus panel to select criteria by which patients at high risk for unmet palliative care needs can be identified in advance for a palliative care screening assessment. The consensus panel developed primary and secondary criteria for two checklists-one to use for screening at the time of admission and one for daily patient rounds. The consensus panel believes that by implementing a checklist approach to screening patients for unmet palliative care needs, combined with educational initiatives and other system-change work, hospital staff engaged in day-to-day patient care can identify a majority of such needs, reserving specialty palliative care services for more complex problems.
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Lack of evidence supporting the claim that palliative care can improve quality of life and promote good death in patients with terminal cancer. ⋯ Under comprehensive palliative care, patients with terminal cancer can have good quality of life and experience a good death even with short survival.
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Giving a Grand Rounds presentation provides the hospice and palliative medicine subspecialist with the occasion to participate in a time-honored and respected event. It remains an opportunity to promote the discipline, support institutional culture change, and favorably influence the attitudes, knowledge, skills, and performance of colleagues. For those pursuing academic careers, it also is a chance to establish academic currency and develop teaching and presentation skills. ⋯ To do this well, adult learning principles must be thoughtfully incorporated into a presentation style and method appropriate to the venue. The approach emphasizes learner-centeredness, interactive strategies, and evaluation. Room for creativity exists at every step and can add enjoyment and challenge along the way.