Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Jan 2024
Review Meta AnalysisHealthy siblings' perspectives about paediatric palliative care: A qualitative systematic review and meta-synthesis.
Siblings of children requiring palliative care are often forgotten and overlooked, as the focus tends to be on the ill child and their parents. Limited knowledge of non-bereaved siblings' perspectives makes it challenging to provide appropriate support for them. A review of existing literature is thus needed to better understand the experiences of these siblings and to identify research gaps that may require further examination. ⋯ Siblings demonstrated negative psychological impacts and were affected by changing family structure and relationships. However, socialisation with society, and varied coping skills such as cognitive coping and using distraction techniques, were significant for siblings to go through this journey and even led to some positive outcomes for them.
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Palliative medicine · Jan 2024
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyThe impact of regular, low-dose, sustained-release morphine for chronic breathlessness on caregiver burden: An exploratory analysis of the BEAMS trial.
Chronic breathlessness adversely impacts people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and their caregivers (family and friends), who may, in turn, experience significant burden due to their caregiving role. Sustained-release morphine may reduce chronic breathlessness in some patients, which may have an impact on caregivers' perceived burden. ⋯ Caregivers reported high levels of caregiver burden, but patients' response to treatment in terms of their symptom and function may influence change in caregiver burden over a three-week period.
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Palliative medicine · Jan 2024
ReviewMethodological challenges and potential solutions for economic evaluations of palliative and end-of-life care: A systematic review.
Given the increasing demand for palliative and end-of-life care, along with the introduction of costly new treatments, there is a pressing need for robust evidence on value. However, comprehensive guidance is missing on methods for conducting economic evaluations in this field. ⋯ Our review offers a comprehensive context-specific overview of methodological considerations for economic evaluations of palliative and end-of-life care. It also identifies the main knowledge gaps to help prioritise future methodological research specifically for this field.
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Palliative medicine · Jan 2024
ReviewPatient and families' perspectives on telepalliative care: A systematic integrative review.
Telepalliative care is increasingly used in palliative care, but has yet to be examined from a patient and family perspective. A synthesis of evidence may provide knowledge on how to plan and provide telepalliative care that caters specifically to patients and families' needs. ⋯ Enhanced access to care and convenience, as attributes of telepalliative care, are highly valued. Patients and families have varying needs during the illness trajectory that may be addressed by early integration of telepalliative care based on models of care that are flexible and combine synchronous and asynchronous solutions. Further research should examine telepalliative care in a post-pandemic context, use of models of care and identify meaningful outcome measures from patient and family perspectives for evaluation of telepalliative care.
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Palliative medicine · Jan 2024
ReviewParents' experiences of being involved in medical decision-making for their child with a life-limiting condition: A systematic review with narrative synthesis.
Parental involvement in the decision-making processes about medical treatment for children with life-limiting conditions is recognised as good practice. Previous research highlighted factors affecting the decision-making process, but little is known about how parents experience their participation. ⋯ Parental experiences with decision-making are complex and multifactorial. Parents' ability to effectively participate in the process is limited, as they are not empowered to do so and the circumstances in which the decisions are taking place are challenging. Healthcare professionals need to support parental involvement in an effective way instead of just formally asking them to participate.