Articles: palliative-care.
-
To examine the factors influencing healthcare for the elderly and the terminally ill in modern health care. ⋯ Among the most critical areas to consider in improving end-of-life care are encouraging patients to make known their wishes, respecting patients' concerns about quality of life, and promoting continuity and skill in end-of-life care.
-
Aboriginal people's need for palliative care services are not being adequately met. ⋯ In accordance with contemporary palliative care principles of facilitating patient and family centred and culturally appropriate care, this article proposes ways in which health care services can be made more accessible and helpful to terminally ill Aboriginal people.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 2000
Physicians' knowledge and attitudes toward the use of analgesics for cancer pain management: a survey of two medical centers in Taiwan.
The purposes of this study were to examine the attitudes of physicians regarding the optimal use of analgesics for cancer pain management (CPM), to evaluate their knowledge and attitudes toward opioid prescribing, and to comprehend their perceptions of the barriers to optimal CPM. A survey was conducted on 356 physicians with cancer patient care responsibilities practicing in two medical centers in Taiwan. A total of 204 (57%) physicians responded, including internists (28%), surgeons (27%), oncologists (11%), anesthesiologists (10%), and other specialties (24%). ⋯ Additionally, physicians with inadequate knowledge of opioid prescribing and with hesitation to intervene earlier with maximal dose of analgesia would be inclined to have reluctant attitudes toward opioid prescribing. The most important barriers to optimal CPM identified by physicians themselves were physician-related problems, such as inadequate guidance from a pain specialist, inadequate knowledge of CPM, and inadequate pain assessment. The results of this study suggest that active analgesic education programs are urgently needed in Taiwan.
-
Palliative medicine · Nov 2000
Common threads? Palliative care service developments in seven European countries.
Since the late 1960s hospice and palliative care services have been developing in many European countries. Although attention has been given to patterns of development in specific national contexts, so far we lack a comparative understanding of how these services are organized and delivered. Such a comparison poses certain practical and methodological difficulties. ⋯ We report on an analysis of palliative care developments in seven European countries which gave attention to early origins, patterns of provision, and structural and policy integration. We conclude that, despite different processes of development, the emergent discipline of palliative care now finds its most congenial home within the structures of the formal health care system. Accordingly, inequities between the seven countries can be more clearly identified, posing continuing challenges to policy makers and planners who operate with a European perspective.