BMJ supportive & palliative care
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BMJ Support Palliat Care · Mar 2017
Palliative care development in the Asia-Pacific region: an international survey from the Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network (APHN).
Although palliative care is an important public healthcare issue worldwide, the current situation in the Asia-Pacific region has not been systematically evaluated. ⋯ The development of palliative care is in different stages across the surveyed countries/regions in the Asia-Pacific region. Data from this survey can be used as baseline data for monitoring the development of palliative care in this region.
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BMJ Support Palliat Care · Mar 2017
Skills, expertise and role of Australian emergency clinicians in caring for people with advanced cancer.
To explore the views of Australian emergency department (ED) clinicians about their skills, role and expertise in caring for people with advanced cancer. ⋯ ED clinicians in Australia, particularly those who have received palliative care education, feel comfortable and adequately skilled in managing people with advanced cancer presenting to EDs, and most find it rewarding. The importance of palliative care education to emergency clinicians' training should be recognised.
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BMJ Support Palliat Care · Mar 2017
Place of care: from referral to specialist palliative care until death.
While there are many poorly standardised studies focusing on place of death, there are limited data on place(s) of care during the final stages of disease. ⋯ A significant number of patients received specialist palliative care across multiple care settings. Late referral is associated with a single domain of care. General practitioner involvement supports patient care and death at home. Place of care and ease of transfer between care settings may be better indicators of the quality of care we provide.
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BMJ Support Palliat Care · Mar 2017
Increasing inpatient hospice use versus patient preferences in the USA: are patients able to die in the setting of their choice?
Growth in hospice utilisation has been accompanied by an increase in the proportion of hospice patients who die in an inpatient hospice setting rather than at home. ⋯ Although more patients are dying while receiving inpatient care, these changes in site of death seem to reflect changing patient preferences. The net effect is that patients in this sample were more likely to die in the setting of their choice in 2012 than they were in 2008.