Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Mar 2022
Beyond Advance Directives: Addressing Communication Gaps and Caregiving Challenges at Life's End A paper for submission to the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.
The premise of advance directives and care planning is to help people articulate and document their wishes so surrogate decision-makers and providers can honor them. However, beyond the completion of such a document, underlying challenges are often unaddressed OBJECTIVES: The overall purpose of the study was to investigate how communication, including but not limited to the completion of advance directives, and caregiving influenced family caregivers' experiences. Communication gaps and caregiving challenges that were unaddressed by advance directives are presented. ⋯ A majority of had an advance directive, yet caregivers expressed feeling unprepared for decision-making, caregiving and discussing it with the dying person. The advance directive and care planning process fell short of providing needed communication, knowledge and preparation; it can be an opportunity for teaching, learning, preparing and supporting families at life's end.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Mar 2022
Review Meta AnalysisPain prevalence during cancer treatment: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Pain is one of the most complex and prevalent symptoms in the cancer population. Despite the protective role of acute cancer-related pain, it is also an important predictor for the likelihood of developing chronic pain after cancer treatment. ⋯ Five years after the last systematic review published on this topic, pain is still very prevalent during cancer treatment. However, the pain prevalence rates were also very heterogeneous. These two findings emphasize the need for further research on the development of adequate pain assessment and pain management approaches during cancer treatment.