Articles: palliative-care.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2022
Prevalence of life-limiting and life-threatening illness and associated palliative care needs among hospital inpatients in Sudan.
Evidence is needed to inform expansion of hospital-based palliative care in low and middle-income countries. ⋯ Care for those with life-limiting and life-threatening illness places a significant occupancy burden on public hospitals. Communication skills are required to provide patients with insight, and core palliative care skills for acute hospital clinicians are needed to manage the high burden of symptoms and concerns.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2022
Palliative Care Attitudes and Experiences among Resident Physicians at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Seriously ill Black patients receive lower quality palliative care than White patients. Equitable access requires palliative care skills training for all physicians. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) play a key role in educating Black physicians and have less access to palliative care resources. ⋯ In the first survey exploring palliative care education at HBCUs, residents viewed palliative care as important but described the quality of their palliative care education as poor. This study highlights opportunities for improving palliative care education at HBCUs as a step toward addressing disparities in serious illness care.
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Background: Communication skills are crucial for personal support workers (PSWs) to foster therapeutic relationships with the residents and their families in the long-term care (LTC) setting. Aim: To evaluate the impact of the Communication at End-of-Life (CEoL) Education Program on the competency and confidence of PSWs working in LTC to communicate about palliative and end-of-life care, and factors affecting their involvement in palliative and end-of-life care. Setting/Participants: PSWs from 35 LTC homes in Ontario, Canada, who participated in the CEoL Education Program between January and March 2019. ⋯ Specifically, we observed PSWs' elevated confidence in speaking with families of the residents about end-of-life, discussing goals and plans with the residents, and realizing that a "good death" is possible. Time constraints and staff shortages were recurrent themes that hindered many participants' ability to provide resident-centered care. Conclusions: This evaluation demonstrates that CEoL Education Program was associated with improved PSW competency and confidence in supporting palliative and end-of-life care in LTC settings.
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Palliative care (PC) is beneficial, however, in many settings it is under-resourced and unable to consistently meet the needs of patients and their families. A lack of national health policy support for PC contributes to underutilization and the low value care experienced by many patients with serious illness at the end of life. ⋯ S. health care system. Although opportunities for improvement exist, the comprehensive framework within VA should help inform the future of program development and serve as a model for integrated and accountable care organizations to emulate.
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Palliative care is provided by an interdisciplinary team, including physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, social workers, chaplains, and other disciplines based on need. Music therapists and art therapists are becoming increasingly available to palliative care teams and are advancing the diverse and unique clinical services available to effectively meet the holistic needs of patients with serious illnesses and their families. This article provides a concrete exploration of clinical music therapy and art therapy within palliative care and hospice paradigms, with discussion of therapists' training and expertise, therapeutic approaches within the setting of interprofessional team-based care, and discussion of evidence-based symptom management and outcomes supporting the inclusion of music and art therapies within medical education and clinical employment.