Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Jul 2020
ReviewMedication use in aged care residents in the last year of life: A scoping review.
A substantial number of older adults die in residential aged care facilities, yet little is known about the characteristics of and how best to optimise medication use in the last year of life. ⋯ Number of prescriptions or blunt categorisations of medications to assess their appropriateness are unlikely to be sufficient to promote well-being and medication safety for older people in residential aged care in the final stages of life.
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Palliative medicine · Jul 2020
Randomized Controlled TrialEconomic evaluation of a combined screening and stepped-care treatment program targeting psychological distress in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer: A cluster randomized controlled trial.
Psychological distress is highly prevalent among patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. ⋯ The intervention is dominant over usual care, primarily due to lower costs in the intervention group. However, there were no statistically significant differences in clinical effects and the uptake of the intervention was quite low. Therefore, widespread implementation cannot be recommended.
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Palliative medicine · Jul 2020
Randomized Controlled TrialNurses' self-efficacy, rather than their knowledge, is associated with their engagement in advance care planning in nursing homes: A survey study.
Considering social cognitive theory and current literature about successful advance care planning in nursing homes, sufficient knowledge and self-efficacy are important preconditions for staff to be able to carry out advance care planning in practice. ⋯ Nurses' engagement in advance care planning practices is mainly associated with their self-efficacy rather than their knowledge. Further research is necessary to improve the evidence regarding the causal relationship between constructs. However, these results suggest that educational programmes that focus solely on knowledge might not lead to increasing uptake of advance care planning in nurses.
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Palliative medicine · Jul 2020
Building trust and facilitating goals of care conversations: A qualitative study in people with heart failure receiving home hospice care.
Despite a majority of persons receiving hospice care in their homes, there are gaps in understanding how to facilitate goals of care conversations between persons with heart failure and healthcare providers. ⋯ Findings from this study suggest that interventions designed to improve goals of care conversations in the home hospice setting should focus on promoting understanding and acceptance of hospice, family support and engagement, and building trusting relationships with interprofessional healthcare teams.
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Palliative medicine · Jul 2020
A mixed-methods pilot study of 'LIFEView' audiovisual technology: Virtual travel to support well-being and quality of life in palliative and end-of-life care patients.
There is evidence that psychosocial and spiritual interventions of short duration, such as reminiscence therapy, provide positive impacts on quality of life and emotional and existential well-being in adults receiving palliative care. ⋯ A future adequately powered study to investigate the impacts of 'LIFEView' on patient well-being and quality of life appears to be feasible.