Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Jan 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialThe Liverpool Care Pathway for cancer patients dying in hospital medical wards: a before-after cluster phase II trial of outcomes reported by family members.
Hospital is the most common place of cancer death but concerns regarding the quality of end-of-life care remain. ⋯ These results provide the first robust data collected from family members of a preliminary clinically significant improvement, in some aspects, of quality of care after the implementation of the Italian version of Liverpool Care Pathway programme. The poor effect for symptom control suggests areas for further innovation and development.
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Palliative medicine · Jan 2014
Review Meta AnalysisPatient and family experiences of palliative care in hospital: what do we know? An integrative review.
In most developed countries, acute hospitals play a significant role in palliative care provision and are the setting in which most people die. They are often the setting where a life-limiting diagnosis is made and where patients present when symptoms develop or when they are not well managed. Understanding the experiences of hospital admissions for people with a life-limiting illness and their families is essential in understanding the role acute hospitals play in providing palliative care. ⋯ This review has identified that, largely as a result of study design, our knowledge of patient and family experiences of palliative care in an acute hospital remains limited to discrete aspects of care. Further research is required to explore the total patient and family experience taking into account all aspects of care including the potential benefits of hospital admissions in the last year of life.
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Palliative medicine · Jan 2014
ReviewShould palliative care patients' hope be truthful, helpful or valuable? An interpretative synthesis of literature describing healthcare professionals' perspectives on hope of palliative care patients.
Healthcare professionals' perspectives on palliative care patients' hope influence communication. However, these perspectives have hardly been examined. ⋯ Healthcare professionals who are able to work with three perspectives on hope may improve their communication with their palliative care patients, which leads to a better quality of care.
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Palliative medicine · Jan 2014
Comparative StudyHow many people need palliative care? A study developing and comparing methods for population-based estimates.
Understanding the need for palliative care is essential in planning services. ⋯ Death registration data using both underlying and contributory causes can give reliable estimates of the population-based need for palliative care, without needing symptom or hospital activity data. In high-income countries, 69%-82% of those who die need palliative care.