International journal of palliative nursing
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This article is a personal reflection and exploration of the potential of poetry in palliative care. Poetry can help enable expression of individuals' deepest unspoken concerns and may provide a means of providing spiritual care. ⋯ To illustrate the potential therapeutic value of poetry in palliative care, examples of poems by poets, patients and the author are included. The article concludes that poetry can bring about a sense of healing, and should be considered as a possible addition to other holistic therapies.
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The need for a specialized clinical regimen for patients with dementia who require palliative care has only recently been recognized. Structured approaches to palliative care are not well developed. The recognition and treatment of pain is an important part of this management risk. ⋯ Validity and internal reliability, assessed by calculating Gamma and Cronbach's alpha, were found to be satisfactory. Qualitative evidence gathered from users of the scale indicated that it was considered a useful clinical device that could be completed within one minute. Further analysis of the use of the scale in clinical settings, testing of inter-rater reliability and examination of the limitations found in this study will commence early in 2004.