Articles: palliative-care.
-
Central to palliative care is the early assessment and treatment of pain, whether physical, psychosocial, or spiritual. Nonverbal palliative care patients are at risk for inadequate pain assessment leading to prolonged suffering. ⋯ MOPAT is the only valid evidence-based pain assessment tool for nonverbal patients receiving palliative care. This project led to successful adoption of the MOPAT within the PCU.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2024
Piloting a Patient Tool to Aid Palliative Care Referrals during Advanced Lung Cancer Treatment.
Patient misperceptions are a strong barrier to early palliative care discussions and referrals during advanced lung cancer treatment. ⋯ The palliative care education and screening tool is acceptable to patients and may address misperceptions and motivate palliative care discussions during treatment.
-
Background: Hospitalized people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) may benefit from specialty palliative care services (sPCS). Objective: To describe access to in-hospital sPCS for people with ALS (pALS). Methods: We compared years 2010-2011 to 2018-2019, and conducted trend analyses of sPCS from 2010 to 2019 stratified by race. ⋯ Rates of sPCS increased over time (2010-2011: 8.9% vs. 2018-2019: 16.6%; p < 0.01). From 2010 to 2019, there was an increase in sPCS (p-trend<0.01) for all studied racial groups. Conclusions: Access to palliative care has increased over time for pALS admitted to hospitals in the United States.
-
The provision of person-centered dignity-conserving care is central to palliative care. It is important to reevaluate current methods of assessing dignity as the concept of dignity is multifaceted. ⋯ Current accounts to assess dignity and assessment tools fail to capture shifting self-concepts of dignity holistically. A portfolio-like appraisal of dignity is proposed to achieve assessments that are timely, longitudinal, and patient-specific. Portfolio-based assessments by members of the multidisciplinary team will better direct timely evaluations of relevant aspects of changing concepts of dignity, without losing the patient's holistic perception of dignity.