Articles: palliative-care.
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Internal medicine journal · Sep 2021
COVID-19 End-of-life Care: Symptoms and Supportive Therapy Use in an Australian Hospital.
Descriptions of symptoms and medication use at end of life in COVID-19 are limited to small cross-sectional studies, with no Australian longitudinal data. ⋯ This study presents one of the first and largest Australian report of the end of life and symptom experience of people dying of COVID-19. This information should help clinicians to anticipate palliative care needs of these patients, for example, recognising that higher starting doses of opioids and sedatives may help reduce prevalence and severity of breathlessness and agitation near death.
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Background: Nurses must possess adequate competencies to provide high-quality palliative care. Earlier statements have described certain competencies that are relevant for palliative care, yet only limited empirical research has focused on the perspective of health care professionals to clarify which competencies are required for different levels of palliative care provision. Objective: The aim was to describe the required palliative nursing competencies of registered nurses aligned to different levels of palliative care provision, from the perspectives of multiprofessional groups. ⋯ An analysis of specialist palliative care data yielded 10 main categories, including 49 subcategories, with "Competence in maintaining expertise and taking care of own well-being at work" containing the most reduced expressions. Conclusion: The study provided new knowledge; more specifically, competencies related to encounters and maintaining hope were described as palliative care nursing competences. The results can be used to ensure that palliative nursing education focuses on the competences that are necessary in practice.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2021
Examining Adherence and Dose Effect of an Early Palliative Care Intervention for Advanced Heart Failure Patients.
Research priority guidelines highlight the need for examining the "dose" components of palliative care (PC) interventions, such as intervention adherence and completion rates, that contribute to optimal outcomes. ⋯ Higher intervention completion rates of an early PC intervention was associated with QoL improvements in patients with advanced HF. Future work should focus on identifying the most efficacious "dose" of intervention components and increasing adherence to them.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2021
Prioritization of Pediatric Palliative Care Field-Advancement Activities in the United States: Results of a National Survey.
The field of pediatric palliative care (PPC) continues to encounter challenges and opportunities to improving access to high-quality PPC services. In early 2019, a workshop identified 11 potential "next step" actions, and subsequently a national survey-based poll of members of the PPC community was conducted to prioritize these potential actions in terms of their "actionable importance." ⋯ Those seeking to advance the field of PPC should take into account the findings from this study, which suggest that certain actions are more likely to have a beneficial impact on moving the field forward.
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Internal medicine journal · Sep 2021
Observational StudyImpacts of multidisciplinary meeting case discussion on palliative care referral and end-of-life care in lung cancer: A retrospective observational study.
Multidisciplinary meeting (MDM) discussion and early palliative care are recommended in lung cancer management. The literature is unclear whether MDM discussion leads to early palliative care and improved end-of-life care. ⋯ Discussion at lung MDM did not increase palliative care referral, but did reduce ICU admission among metastatic patients at the end of life. Longer palliative care referral-to-death interval was associated with reduced aggressive end-of-life care. Further research is needed in these areas.