Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · May 2016
They know!-Do they? A qualitative study of residents and relatives views on advance care planning, end-of-life care, and decision-making in nursing homes.
Residents living in long-term care facilities are a vulnerable population. For many residents, a nursing home is their place of death. Palliative care and end-of-life decisions are important components of their care provision. ⋯ Although most residents seem to be satisfied with decision-making and end-of life care, there is a need for systematic advance care planning. Advance care planning could help to explore future wishes for care and ease decision-making for the relatives, physicians, and staff and should be offered to all cognitively able nursing homes residents.
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Palliative medicine · May 2016
Observational StudyThe importance of the feasibility study: Lessons from a study of the hand-held fan used to relieve dyspnea in people who are breathless at rest.
The dyspnea accompanying advanced cardiorespiratory disease is often refractory to palliation. It is disabling, distressing and associated with the diseases most common everywhere in the world. The hand-held fan, used to generate a draught across the face, is a simple, cost-effective, safe, and universally applicable palliative breathlessness intervention, consistently described as valuable in qualitative research. A previous crossover trial confirmed its benefit in patients breathless at rest, but the washout period was uncertain. ⋯ Feasibility work is essential, even for simple widely employed interventions.
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Palliative medicine · May 2016
Letter Observational StudyIntegrating palliative care into the oncology clinic: A joint management approach.