BMJ supportive & palliative care
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BMJ Support Palliat Care · Mar 2013
ReviewInstruments used to measure the effectiveness of palliative care education initiatives at the undergraduate level: a critical literature review.
The increase in the numbers of patients with palliative care needs has resulted in growing pressures on the small number of specialist palliative care providers within the New Zealand context. These pressures can potentially be eased by ensuring an adequately trained workforce, beginning with undergraduate training in the healthcare field. The goal of the present review is to ascertain what tools exist to measure the effectiveness of undergraduate palliative care education initiatives. ⋯ The increased focus by educational institutions on instilling palliative care skills in healthcare students necessitates the development of comprehensive and validated tools to evaluate the effectiveness of education initiatives.
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BMJ Support Palliat Care · Mar 2013
Observational StudyWho, why and when: stroke care unit patients seen by a palliative care service within a large metropolitan teaching hospital.
To investigate factors associated with referral of patients from an Australian stroke care unit (SCU) to an inpatient palliative care service (PCS). ⋯ This study indicates there are patient and condition-level factors associated with referral of stroke patients to PCS. It highlights factors that might better stratify hospitalised stroke patients to timely palliative care involvement, and adds an Australian perspective to limited data addressing this patient population.
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BMJ Support Palliat Care · Mar 2013
Collaborative palliative care for advanced heart failure: outcomes and costs from the 'Better Together' pilot study.
Patients with heart failure often receive little supportive or palliative care. 'Better Together' was a 2-year pilot study of a palliative care service for patients with advanced congestive heart failure (CHF). ⋯ This pilot study provides tentative evidence that a collaborative home-based palliative care service for patients with advanced CHF may increase the likelihood of death in place of choice and reduce inpatient admissions. These findings require confirmation using a more robust methodological framework.
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BMJ Support Palliat Care · Mar 2013
Interpreting educational evidence for practice: are autopsies a missed educational opportunity to learn core palliative care principles?
UK policy requires undergraduate medical curricula to equip students to care for dying patients. The educational potential of autopsy attendance during authentic early experience to learn about the social context of death and dying has not been fully explored. In this paper the author: (1) explores how meaning is created from autopsies in authentic early experience; (2) compares views of students, curriculum designers and pathology supervisors; and (3) identifies actual/potential learning about death and dying. ⋯ Increasing communication and collaboration between medical school curriculum designers and disciplines such as Palliative Medicine as well as Pathology could address concerns regarding student/doctor competencies to deal with death and dying. Further research is needed to evaluate changes in curriculum design and to establish if similar concerns are found in other settings.
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BMJ Support Palliat Care · Mar 2013
ReviewUsing care profiles as a catalyst for improving end of life commissioning, involvement and service delivery.
In 2010, Liverpool Primary Care Trust successfully pioneered a care profiles approach to commissioning End of Life (EoL) services. They established service requirements for each stage of the EoL pathway, and set out skill mix, delivery, quality and outcomes. This feature sets out how the approach can also support local work relating to Advance Care Planning, palliative care funding tariffs and patient and public involvement. ⋯ EoL care profiles enable local services to be commissioned in detail, which is a catalyst and essential precursor for an inclusive and explicit approach to planning and resourcing services for individual patients and the population as a whole.