Articles: palliative-care.
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Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may lead to a rapid decline in health and subsequent death, an unfortunate tyranny of having COPD-an irreversible health condition of 16 million individuals in the USA totaling 60 million in the world. While COPD is the third largest leading cause of death, causing 3.23 million deaths worldwide in 2019 (according to the WHO), most patients with COPD do not receive adequate treatment at the end stages of life. ⋯ Here, we summarized the current understanding and treatment of COPD. This review also highlights the importance of patient-centered discussion and summarizes current status of managing patients with advanced COPD.
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Palliative medicine · Feb 2022
Understanding the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on delivery of rehabilitation in specialist palliative care services: An analysis of the CovPall-Rehab survey data.
Palliative rehabilitation involves multi-professional processes and interventions aimed at optimising patients' symptom self-management, independence and social participation throughout advanced illness. Rehabilitation services were highly disrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic. ⋯ This study demonstrates how changes in provision of rehabilitation during the pandemic could act as a springboard for positive changes. Hybrid models of rehabilitation have the potential to expand the equity of access and reach of rehabilitation within specialist palliative care.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2022
ReviewInterventions to Improve Prognostic Understanding in Advanced Stages of Life-Limiting Illness: A Systematic Review.
Among patients with advanced life-limiting illness, an inaccurate understanding of prognosis is common and associated with negative outcomes. Recent years have seen an emergence of new interventions tested for their potential to improve prognostic understanding. However, this literature has yet to be synthesized. ⋯ Prognostic understanding interventions hold the potential to improve patient understanding and thus informed decision making, but limitations exist. Future research should examine why many patients receiving intervention may continue to maintain inaccurate perceptions, and identify which intervention components can best enhance informed, value-consistent decision making.