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The assessment of suicide risk in institutionalized older people has received less attention in comparison with those not institutionalized. The studies carried out show contradictory data on the prevalence of risk in this population group. ⋯ A prevalence of 38.4% is obtained, and an association between suicide risk and the factors depression and perception of health. The results indicate to us the necessity for actions directed at decreasing the suicide rate in geriatric homes.
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Collaborations in palliative care have helped to create a framework and identify preferred practices so the field of palliative care can grow. Teamwork designed in a transdisciplinary style is desired and provides whole-person, sensitive, and comprehensive care. In applying the basic key concepts and evidenced-based knowledge of palliative care, this article details one palliative care department's effort to create change, enhance the delivery of care, and build their palliative care practice. Creating collaborations and building partnerships were fundamental outcomes to improve the palliative care practice, increase transdisciplinary teamwork activities, and enhance the delivery of care in this organization.
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Confronted with the complexities inherent in delivering palliative care, effective collaboration with referring staff becomes vital. Based on the evaluation of the physical and psychosocial concerns of patients, the goal of palliative care is to craft interventions that maintain quality of life in the face of increasing symptoms and deteriorating functional status. ⋯ The findings show that referrals to palliative care have increased over 100% from a broader range of services since initiating this project. Assessment data has been collected on 165 patients and outcomes are discussed.
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A transdisciplinary team is an essential component of palliative and end-of-life care. This article will demonstrate how to develop a transdisciplinary approach to palliative care, incorporating nursing, social work, spiritual care, and pharmacy in an acute care setting. ⋯ After 1 year of implementation, the transdisciplinary palliative care team consisted of seven palliative care physicians, two social workers, two chaplains, a pharmacist, and End-of-Life Nursing Consortium (ELNEC) trained nurses. Palomar Health now has a palliative care service with a consistent process for transdisciplinary communication and intervention for adult critical care patients with advanced, chronic illness.
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This article reflects a project to create, refine, and use a palliative care specific spiritual assessment, with the intent to implement its use for both an inpatient Palliative Consult Service (PCS) and a Spiritual Health Service (SHS) team. Extensive meetings with these services to confirm a shared understanding of the use of this spiritual assessment to facilitate communication with PCS through consistent language about the patient's story, suffering, spirit, and sense-making. Following a pilot phase of using this palliative care spiritual assessment, five presentations were shared with the SHS team to explore using this assessment. Although the SHS team decided not to use its content, these presentations spurred dialogue toward what was to become a SHS standardized documentation process, eventually called data, intervention, outcome, plan (DIOP).