Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2012
Challenges in providing family-centered support to families in palliative care.
Supporting the family-as-a-whole presents challenges in palliative care, although family meetings are increasingly used in routine practice. The Family Focused Grief Therapy (FFGT) Model guides clinicians in using a range of intervention strategies. ⋯ Challenges exist in therapy with difficult families. Therapy in the home brings special issues. Therapists can apply most of the interventions prescribed by the FFGT model.
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2012
Feeling severely affected by multiple sclerosis: what does this mean?
The situation for people feeling severely affected by Multiple Sclerosis (MS) remains largely unexamined and the term 'severe MS' is not clearly defined. ⋯ EDSS is insufficient for usage as the sole instrument for measuring severe affectedness as it does not take into account other potential reasons. Complex patient needs necessitate multi-professional care as offered by palliative medicine.
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2012
What is the role of specialist palliative care in an acute hospital setting? A qualitative study exploring views of patients and carers.
Since the medical specialty of palliative medicine was recognized in 1988, the role of hospital specialist palliative care services has been developing, extending to patients who have a life-limiting illness but are not in the terminal phase. ⋯ These findings will aid continuing development and evaluation of palliative care teams, in the domains of effectiveness as well as patient experience.
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2012
Case ReportsTopical application of a beclometasone steroid inhaler for treatment of stoma inflammation.
We describe two cases of peristomal inflammation which resulted in pain, poor adhesion of the stoma bag and faecal leaking. The inflammation did not respond to regular cleaning and barrier film sprays, but dramatically improved with the application of a beclometasone dry powder aerosol inhaler sprayed onto the inflamed skin around the stoma site. A steroid inhaler was used to decrease the peristomal inflammation without affecting the adhesion of the stoma bag which could be caused by creams.
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Palliative medicine · Dec 2012
Out-of-hours medical care for terminally ill patients: A survey of availability and preferences of general practitioners.
Continuity of care is one of the core values of good medical care for terminally ill patients. The availability of one's own general practitioner (GP) out of hours is regarded as important for personal continuity. Few data are available about the extent of out-of-hours care given by GPs to their terminally ill patients. ⋯ The reported out-of-hours availability of GPs for terminally ill patients is still high. GPs' perception of their duty of care might change in the next generations, and the increasing number of salaried GPs, living far from their practice, might threaten out-of-hours availability for terminally ill patients. GPs' perception of their duty of care might change in the next generations, and the increasing number of salaried GPs living far from their practice might threaten out-of-hours availability for terminally ill patients.