Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2023
Perspectives of inpatients with palliative care needs, their families, clinicians and key stakeholders on measuring quality of hospital care via patient experience measures: A qualitative study.
Globally there are high numbers of patients with palliative care needs receiving care in hospitals. Patient reported experience measures (PREMs) provide useful data to guide improvement work. How to implement PREMs within palliative care populations is unclear. ⋯ This study provides practical guidance for PREM selection and implementation to inform improvements to care for inpatients with palliative care needs.
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2023
Health care professional recruitment of patients and family carers to palliative care randomised controlled trials: A qualitative multiple case study.
Trial participant recruitment is an interactional process between health care professionals, patients and carers. Little is known about how clinicians carry out this role in palliative care trials and the reasons why they do or do not recruit participants. ⋯ Those planning trials need to ensure that trial recruiters, depending on their experience and trial characteristics, have access to training and support to address the 'emotional labour' of recruitment. The type of training required requires further research.
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2023
Observational StudyThe financial costs of anticipatory prescribing: A retrospective observational study of prescribed, administered and wasted medications using community clinical records.
The prescribing of injectable end-of-life anticipatory medications ahead of possible need is recommended best practice. The financial costs of these medications have been little studied. ⋯ The costs of prescribed and unused anticipatory medications were higher than previously reported but remain modest. Usage of prescriptions was lower than previously documented. There may be scope to reduce the quantity of vials that are routinely prescribed without adversely affecting care; further research is needed to investigate this possibility.
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2023
Achieving consensus on priority items for paediatric palliative care outcome measurement: Results from a modified Delphi survey, engagement with a children's research involvement group and expert item generation.
There is no validated outcome measure for use in children's palliative care outside sub-Saharan Africa. Stakeholders must be involved in the development of such measures to ensure face and content validity. ⋯ This study highlights the importance and feasibility of involving key stakeholders in PROM item generation, as important differences were found in the priority outcomes identified by children, parents and professionals.