Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Mar 2024
ReviewImproving family grief outcomes: A scoping review of family-based interventions before and after the death of a child.
Experiencing the illness and death of a child is a traumatic experience for the parents and the child's siblings. However, knowledge regarding effective grief interventions targeting the whole family is limited, including how to integrate age-appropriate support for siblings. ⋯ There is great need for research to improve bereavement outcomes for the entire family and to potentially integrate this in pediatric palliative care.
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Palliative medicine · Mar 2024
Co-designing a culturally-sensitive theory-driven advance care planning game with Chinese older adults and healthcare providers.
Advance care planning can be challenging because discussing end-of-life care often has negative connotations. Gamification is a novel approach to encourage advance care planning conversations in Western culture. ⋯ This study is the first to develop an evidence-informed, theory-based, culturally sensitive game for promoting advance care planning in the Chinese community using a co-design approach.
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Palliative medicine · Mar 2024
'So being here is. . . I feel like I'm being a social worker again, at the hospice': Using interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore social workers' experiences of hospice work.
Social workers have a significant role in hospices working with clients who are facing death but there is limited detailed understanding of the emotional impact of this work on social workers. Research has highlighted that those involved in hospice work find the work both a struggle (e.g. because of heightened emotions) and rewarding (noting that end-of-life care can feel like a privilege). ⋯ The results offer an exploration of social workers' experiences of their work in hospices; how adept they were at coping and how they prepared for and made sense of the often emotionally-laden experiences encountered. Their experience of the rewards and meaning derived from their work offers important findings for clinical practice. Further research is suggested to explore a multitude of healthcare professionals' perspectives across country settings using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.
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Palliative medicine · Mar 2024
More than the sum of its parts-A constructivist grounded-theory study on specialist palliative care during crises like the COVID pandemic.
The COVID pandemic is an example of a crisis challenging healthcare systems worldwide. The impact of the pandemic on providing high-quality palliative care calls for a deeper understanding of specialist services during crises. This is essential in preparation for further crises. ⋯ Addressing the complex problems in specialist palliative care caused by crises requires system thinking and a learning mindset. This can facilitate teams to overcome the crisis and move forward rather than bounce back to normal.