Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2023
'Thank goodness you're here'. Exploring the impact on patients, family carers and staff of enhanced 7-day specialist palliative care services: A mixed methods study.
Healthcare usage patterns change for people with life limiting illness as death approaches, with increasing use of out-of-hours services. How best to provide care out of hours is unclear. ⋯ Enhanced seven-day services provide high quality integrated palliative care, with positive experiences for patients, carers and staff.
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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
Mutual support between patients and family caregivers in palliative care: A qualitative study.
Patients in receipt of palliative care services are often viewed primarily as recipients of support from their family caregiver. There is a dearth of evidence in palliative care on what comprises mutual support between patients and their family caregivers in palliative care. ⋯ The findings inform the development and delivery of psychosocial interventions for patients and family caregivers in palliative care aimed at facilitating supportive relations between them.
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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.