Articles: palliative-care.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Mar 2024
Effects of primary care-led, integrated palliative care for Medicare patients in a value-based model.
Faced with a projected shortage of specialized palliative care physicians, scalable palliative solutions are required to better meet the aging population's needs. ⋯ A primary care-led, integrated approach of delivering palliative care within a full-risk model can be an effective care delivery mechanism to meet the healthcare needs of an aging population by impacting patient outcomes and reducing avoidable utilization and cost at the end of life. These findings demonstrate that PCPs in a scaled, full-risk model can simultaneously improve care for patients while reducing costs to the healthcare system.
-
Conversational agents (sometimes called chatbots) are technology-based systems that use artificial intelligence to simulate human-to-human conversations. Research on conversational agents in health care is nascent but growing, with recent reviews highlighting the need for more robust evaluations in diverse settings and populations. ⋯ We describe potential roles for conversational agents aligned with the core domains of quality palliative care and identify risks that must be considered and addressed in the development and use of these systems for people with serious illness. With careful consideration of risks and benefits, conversational agents represent promising tools that should be explored as one component of a multipronged approach for improving patient and family outcomes in serious illness.
-
Palliative medicine · Mar 2024
What are the triggers for palliative care referral in burn intensive care units? Results from a qualitative study based on healthcare professionals' views, clinical experiences and practices.
Burns are a global public health problem, accounting for around 300,000 deaths annually. Burns have significant consequences for patients, families, healthcare teams and systems. Evidence suggests that the integration of palliative care in burn intensive care units improves patients' comfort, decision-making processes and family care. Research is needed on how to optimise palliative care referrals. ⋯ This study identifies triggers for palliative care in burn intensive care units based on professionals' views, clinical experiences and practices. The systematisation and use of triggers could help streamline referral pathways and strengthen the integration of palliative care in burn intensive care units. Research is needed on the use of these triggers in clinical practice to enhance decision-making processes, early and high-quality integrated palliative care and proportionate patient and family centred care.
-
Pediatric palliative transport (PPT) is the practice of offering critically and terminally ill children requiring life-sustaining measures the opportunity to be discharged from the hospital to home or a hospice facility for end-of-life care. Although studies have shown PPT to favorably affect both children and their families, limited research exists on the perspectives of health care practitioners. ⋯ Pediatric palliative transport is considered a feasible, valuable, and critical end-of-life intervention. The value that PPT has brought to participating families warrants continued investment in the intervention's standardization and enhancement.
-
Palliative medicine · Mar 2024
'My life is a mess but I cope': An analysis of the language children and young people use to describe their own life-limiting or life-threatening condition.
Children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions have multidimensional needs and heterogenous cognitive and communicative abilities. There is limited evidence to support clinicians to tailor their communication to each individual child. ⋯ Children and young people can provide rich descriptions of their condition. Paying attention to their lexical choices, and converging one's language towards theirs, may enable more child-centred discussions. Expanding discussions about 'what matters most' with consideration of the losses and differences they have experienced may facilitate a fuller assessment of their concerns, preferences and priorities.