Articles: palliative-care.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2022
Normalization of Symptoms in Advanced Child Cancer: The PediQUEST-Response Case Study.
Children, adolescents and young adults with cancer continue to experience significant symptom suffering throughout their illness. ⋯ Normalization of symptoms is a pervasive barrier enacted by all involved in caring for children with advanced cancer. Strategies to overcome normalization are critical to ease child distress.
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Palliative medicine · Apr 2022
It's like standing in front of a prison fence - Dying during the SARS-CoV2 pandemic: A qualitative study of bereaved relatives' experiences.
Since the onset of the SARS CoV2 pandemic, protective and isolation measures had a strong impact on the care and support provided to seriously ill and dying people at the end-of-life. ⋯ Our results indicate that the strong need for closeness when a family member was dying could not be met due to the pandemic. This led to suffering that can be prevented. Visits need to be facilitated by making considered decisions on a case-by-case basis. For easy communication with relatives, approaches should be made by healthcare professionals and support for virtual communication should be offered. Furthermore, the results of the study can help to implement or develop ideas to enable dignified farewells even during pandemics.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2022
Cross Country Comparison of Expert Assessments of the Quality of Death and Dying 2021.
Few efforts have attempted to quantify how well countries deliver end-of-life (EOL) care. ⋯ This study provides an example of how a preference-based scoring algorithm and input from key stakeholders can be used to assess EOL health system performance. Results highlight the large disparities in assessments of the quality of EOL care across countries, and especially between the highest income countries and others.
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Palliative medicine · Apr 2022
Risk factors associated with poorer experiences of end-of-life care and challenges in early bereavement: Results of a national online survey of people bereaved during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experiences of end-of-life care and early bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic are poorly understood. ⋯ Four clear risk factors were found for poorer end-of-life care and pandemic-related challenges in bereavement: place, cause and expectedness of death, and relationship to the deceased.
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Palliative medicine · Apr 2022
An examination and proposed definitions of family members' grief prior to the death of individuals with a life-limiting illness: A systematic review.
Research has extensively examined family members' grief prior to the death of an individual with a life-limiting illness but several inconsistencies in its conceptualization of related constructs, yet significant conceptualization issues exist. ⋯ We found grief occurring before the death of a person with a life-limiting illness, which we termed pre-death grief, is comprised of two distinct constructs: anticipatory grief and illness-related grief. Anticipatory grief is future-oriented and is characterized by separation distress and worry about a future without the person with the life-limiting illness being physically present. Illness-related grief is present-oriented and is characterized by grief over current and ongoing losses experienced during the illness trajectory. These definitions provide the field with uniform constructs to advance the study of grief before the death of an individual with a life-limiting illness.