Articles: palliative-care.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Dec 2020
Changes in Pain Medication Profile among Patients Admitted to Specialized Home Palliative Care in Relation to Referral Source: An Exploratory Study.
Pain is a common symptom leading to referrals to specialized home palliative care (SHPC) services and is known to affect patients' quality of life. To date, little is known about the impact of referral source on its management. To assess changes to pain medication profile in the course of SHPC and to identify potential differences in relation to referral source. ⋯ Our study suggests positive development in the prescription of opioid analgesics compared to earlier studies in Germany. On the one hand, it highlights the relevance of thorough assessment and responsive evaluation of pain in SHPC, and on the other hand it reveals possible training needs of referring physicians, particularly those working in the outpatient sector. Our results inspired further research examining more closely the links between referral source and pain management.
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Background: Telemedicine has been proposed as a means to improve access to palliative care. There is limited information about how health care workers feel about providing this kind of care and how families feel about receiving it. Objective: This study assesses provider and caregiver perceptions of the safety and efficacy of the Distance Support Program (DSP) of a home-based palliative care provider in Beirut, Lebanon. ⋯ They felt it was safest when delivered by an experienced provider, they had access to a reliable caregiver, and the patient was assessed at least once. They felt it was important to communicate clear expectations to patients and caregivers when delivering care by telephone. Conclusions: Telemedicine can be a useful tool to provide palliative care services in settings where they would otherwise not be available.
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2020
ReviewDoes the carer support needs assessment tool cover the established support needs of carers of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease? A systematic literature search and narrative review.
Informal carers play a key supportive role for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. However, caring can have a considerable impact on health and wellbeing. Carers may have unidentified support needs that could be a target for intervention. Literature on the support needs of informal carers has not been fully synthesised, and our knowledge of the comprehensiveness of the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool for these individuals is limited. ⋯ Evidence suggests that carers of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease would benefit from identification and response to their support needs by healthcare professionals but to enable this, the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool requires an additional question. Future planned work will explore this with carers of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Dec 2020
Investigation of modifiable variables to increase hospice nurse comfort with care provision to children and families in the community: A population-level study across Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas.
Most hospice nurses across Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi report significant discomfort with provision of pediatric palliative and hospice care (PPHC). How best to target and modify variables to increase nurse comfort levels is not well understood. ⋯ Modifiable variables exist that are readily targetable to improve hospice nurse comfort with PPHC provision. These findings should inform the development and investigation of clinical and educational interventions to empower both nurses and hospices to optimize the provision of quality care to children with serious illness and their families in the community.
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2020
A cross-sectional gender-sensitive analysis of depressive symptoms in patients with advanced cancer.
Patients with advanced cancer commonly report depressive symptoms. Examinations of gender differences in depressive symptoms in patients with advanced cancer have yielded inconsistent findings. ⋯ Males and females report similar levels of depressive symptoms but the pathways to depression may differ by gender. These differences suggest the potential for gender-based preventive and therapeutic interventions in this population.