BMC palliative care
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BMC palliative care · Oct 2019
Completion rate of physician orders for life-sustaining treatment for patients with metastatic or recurrent cancer: a preliminary, cross-sectional study.
"End of life" is a difficult topic of conversation in East Asian cultures, even among patients and doctors who share a good rapport. In 2016, the Hospice, Palliative Care, and Life-Sustaining Treatment Decision-Making Act, which took the form of "Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment," was introduced in South Korea. This study was conducted to investigate the completion rate of Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment in patients with advanced cancer on the active recommendation of physicians, as well as patients' general attitudes toward end-of-life care. ⋯ We found that highly educated patients, who understood the concept behind the policy well, tended to accept Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment without hesitation. Better education, information shared through the media, and conversations with health care providers might improve understanding of Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment in patients with cancer.
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BMC palliative care · Oct 2019
Assessing the validity of the clinician-rated distress thermometer in palliative care.
The distress of patients suffering from a terminal illness can lead to a state of despair and requests for euthanasia and assisted suicide. It is a major challenge for palliative care workers. The Distress Thermometer (DT) is recommended by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network as a means of more easily assessing distress. It is available as a Self-assessment reported Distress Thermometer, but for a wider use in palliative care it should also be implemented in the form of a clinician-reported outcome (clinRO). Clinicians need to rate patient's distress when the patient is not able to do so (subject that cannot be addressed, defensive patient…). The primary aim of the quantitative study was to assess the validity of the Clinician-Rated Distress Thermometer in palliative care. ⋯ The first assessment gave the best results in terms of concordance between Clinician-Rated DT and Self-Reported DT. In the next assessments, the Clinician-Rated DT were less consistent with the patients' Self-Reported DT.
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BMC palliative care · Oct 2019
A comparative study on decision and documentation of refraining from resuscitation in two medical home care units in Sweden.
A decision to refrain from cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the case of cardiac arrest is recommended in terminally ill patients to avoid unnecessary suffering at time of death. The aim of this study was to describe the frequency of decisions and documentation of "do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation" (DNACPR) in two Medical Home Care Units in Stockholm. Unit A had written guidelines about how to document CPR-decisions in the medical records, including a requirement for a decision to be taken (CPR: yes/no) while Unit B had no such requirement. ⋯ Less than 50% of patients in palliative phase had a decision of DNACPR in two Medical Home Care Units in Stockholm. The presence of written guidelines and a requirement for a CPR-decision did not increase the frequency of DNACPR-decisions but was associated with a higher frequency of documentation of decisions and of information given to both the patients and the next-of-kin.
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BMC palliative care · Sep 2019
The developing and evaluation of an electronic tool to assess the effect of undergraduate training in palliative care: the electronic international medical education in palliative care (IMEP-e) assessment tool.
With increased demand for palliative care (PC), the World Health Organisation (WHO) have called for PC teaching to be made routine. However, medical students report feeling unprepared in dealing with end-of-life care. Necessary benchmarking of the preparedness of clinicians to provide PC is required to identify where current training is sub-optimal and ensure future doctors are equipped to meet the needs of their patients. The aim of this study is to assess the utility of an electronic International Medical Education in Palliative Care (IMEP-e) assessment tool that examines the preparedness of clinicians to provide PC. ⋯ The IMEP-e tool is a viable and comparable method for collecting data on the preparedness to practice PC. A larger scale study is needed to determine and evaluate if, and how, preparing clinicians to work in PC has been adapted in to routine training.
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BMC palliative care · Aug 2019
When is hastened death considered suicide? A systematically conducted literature review about palliative care professionals' experiences where assisted dying is legal.
Laws allowing assisted suicide and euthanasia have been implemented in many locations around the world but some individuals suffering with terminal illness receiving palliative care services are hastening death or die by suicide without assistance. This systematic review aims to summarise evidence of palliative care professionals' experiences of patients who died by suicide or hastened death in areas where assisted dying is legal and to understand when hastened death is considered to be a suicide. ⋯ There are a range of experiences and emotions professionals' experience with patients who die by euthanasia, assisted suicide, or hasten death without assistance. The included literature suggests improved communication among professionals is needed but does not explicitly identify when a hastened death is deemed a suicide in areas where assisted dying is practiced. More research is needed to help clarify what hastened death means in a palliative care context and identify how and if assisted dying impacts issues of suicide in palliative care settings.