Articles: palliative-care.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2025
Pediatric Palliative Care Simulation Improves Resident Learning Outcomes: an 11-Year Review.
Many general pediatrics residents lack sufficient opportunities to conduct difficult conversations with families, particularly about end-of-life care. Simulation learning is an effective means of practicing professional skills. A pediatric palliative care (PPC) physician is uniquely suited to mentor residents and fellows learning to lead difficult conversations through simulation. Co-facilitation of the simulated difficult conversation by a bereaved parent or family member enhances the learning experience. ⋯ Simulations with bereaved parent actors improved general pediatrics residents' performance and comfort during difficult conversations and are transportable to diverse settings.
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Experience sampling methods typically involve multiple self-report assessments per day over consecutive days. Unlike traditional patient-reported outcome measures or interviews, such methods offer the possibility to capture the temporal fluctuations of experiences in daily environments, making them valuable for studying the daily lives of people with advanced illness. Yet, their use in palliative care research is limited. ⋯ Experience sampling methods hold potential to uncover the dynamics of everyday experiences of people with advanced illness. The methods offer considerable flexibility and options to answer a variety of research questions, but consideration is required regarding sampling protocols and participant burden. We showed appropriate feasibility and acceptable participant burden of the methods among people with advanced breast or advanced lung cancer.
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Palliative medicine · Feb 2025
Palliative and end-of-life care for patients with pleural mesothelioma: A cohort study.
Pleural mesothelioma is a rare and incurable cancer, with complex physical and psychological symptoms. Despite recent advances in treatment, prognosis remains poor (average 8-15 months) with a lack of research on palliative and end-of-life care. ⋯ Patients with pleural mesothelioma have unplanned admissions to hospital towards the end of life, with possible inequalities; they receive late advance care planning and face challenges unique to their disease. It is important that patients receive high quality palliative end-of-life care through accessing specialist palliative care or have guidance/signposting to other potential sources of support.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2025
Implementation and Evaluation of a Pediatric Palliative Care Curriculum for Adult-Track HPM Fellows.
Hospice and Palliative Medicine (HPM) fellowship training provides education on caring for patients from early childhood through adulthood. Yet, there are few guidelines about how to teach these key components, and more specifically the components of Pediatric Palliative Care (PPC), to fellows who have a variety of backgrounds prior to entering HPM fellowship. ⋯ The study revealed some limitations in the current curriculum design, such as its lack of consistency. However, it also highlighted several strengths, including the importance of flexibility and personal responsibility for learning. The results provide valuable insights into the experiences among fellows and educators at a single institution with a PPC Curriculum for adult-track HPM fellows.
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Palliative medicine · Feb 2025
Community out-of-hours palliative care - 'It's a patchwork of services': A qualitative study exploring care provision.
People in receipt of community palliative care usually receive care from a range of services and require access to care 24/7. However, care outside of normal working hours varies, with little understanding of which models of care are optimal. ⋯ This study identifies key characteristics of four common models of out-of-hours palliative care, from the perspectives of professionals. Facilitators of high quality out-of-hours care include: a palliative care specific single point of access for patients; formal structures to integrate generalist/specialist services; and timely/skilled management of symptoms. We provide recommendations for a potential model incorporating these factors.