BMJ supportive & palliative care
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BMJ Support Palliat Care · Dec 2016
Medical students writing on death, dying and palliative care: a qualitative analysis of reflective essays.
Medical students and doctors are becoming better prepared to care for patients with palliative care needs and support patients at the end of life. This preparation needs to start at medical school. ⋯ Reflective essays give insights into the way students learn about death, dying and palliative care and how it affects them personally as well as the preparation that is needed to be better equipped to deal with these kinds of experiences. Analysis of the essays enabled the proposal of new strategies to help make them more effective learning tools and to optimise students' learning from a palliative care attachment.
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BMJ Support Palliat Care · Dec 2016
ReviewThe preferences and perspectives of family caregivers towards place of care for their relatives at the end-of-life. A systematic review and thematic synthesis of the qualitative evidence.
Home is often reported as the preferred place of care for patients at the end-of-life. The support of family caregivers is crucial if this is to be realised. However, little is known about their preferences; a greater understanding would identify how best to support families at the end-of-life, ensuring more patients are cared for in their preferred location. ⋯ Many family caregivers reported home as the preferred place of care; other places of care were infrequently considered. Healthcare professionals and service providers should be aware of these preferences and provide support where needed to enable family caregivers to successfully care at home, thus improving end-of-life experiences for families as a whole.
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BMJ Support Palliat Care · Dec 2016
Use of high-fidelity simulation to improve communication skills regarding death and dying: a qualitative study.
The objectives of this study were to explore medical students' experiences of communicating with patients and their carers about death and dying, and to assess whether using high-fidelity simulation improved students' confidence in discussing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. ⋯ This study has suggested that high-fidelity simulation may be a useful adjunct for undergraduate communication skills training in palliative medicine. Further research is required to assess whether improvements in confidence described by students in this study translate to discernible improvements in competence, and whether using high-fidelity simulation in this setting is cost-effective.