The American journal of hospice & palliative care
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Aug 2019
Multicenter StudyTrauma Surgeon and Palliative Care Physician Attitudes Regarding Goals-of-Care Delineation for Injured Geriatric Patients.
The value of defining goals of care (GoC) for geriatric patients is well known to the palliative care community but is a newer concept for many trauma surgeons. Palliative care specialists and trauma surgeons were surveyed to elicit the specialties' attitudes regarding (1) importance of GoC conversations for injured seniors; (2) confidence in their own specialty's ability to conduct these conversations; and (3) confidence in the ability of the other specialty to do so. ⋯ Both groups believe themselves to conduct GoC discussions for injured seniors better than the other specialty perceived them to do so, which led to disparate views on the optimal leadership of these discussions.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Aug 2019
Palliative Care in Myocardial Infarction: Patient Characteristics and Trends of Service Utilization in a National Inpatient Sample.
Myocardial infarction (MI) remains a leading cause of mortality. Palliative care (PC) has recently expanded in scope to include noncancer-related conditions. There is little data available regarding the use of PC in critical MI patients. ⋯ Several comorbidities were associated with the use of PC, most notably the use of mechanical ventilation and the presence of metastatic cancer. There was a trend of increasing use of PC during the study period.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Aug 2019
Patient Perspectives on Advance Care Planning via a Patient Portal.
Patient portals can offer patients an opportunity to engage in the advance care planning (ACP) process outside of clinical visits. ⋯ Patients considered the portal-based ACP tools to be practical and feasible to use within the scope of their own ACP experiences. Further study is needed to understand whether portal-based ACP tools increase the quality and quantity of ACP conversations and documentation that is available to inform medical decision-making.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Jul 2019
Implementing a Palliative Medicine Music Therapy Program: A Quality Improvement Project.
Recent evidence suggests that music therapy, a holistic method of care, potentially is beneficial for symptom management. This quality improvement project aimed to evaluate the effect of music therapy on symptom management and coping skills of patients receiving palliative care and to measure patient satisfaction with the therapy. A secondary aim was to evaluate staff perception of patient outcomes of music therapy services. ⋯ In this quality improvement project, music therapy positively affected multiple domains of well-being for patients receiving palliative care.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Jul 2019
Addressing Educational Needs in Managing Complex Pain in Cancer Populations: Evaluation of APAM: An Online Educational Intervention for Nurses.
Cancer-related pain is associated with significant suffering and is one of the most challenging symptoms to manage. Studies indicate that front-line clinicians often lack the knowledge on best practices in cancer pain management. ⋯ A facilitator-led online educational intervention focusing on complex cancer pain management can significantly improve nurses' knowledge, confidence, and skills. Low baseline knowledge among nurses highlights the pressing need for health-care organizations to implement cancer pain management training as an integral part of health-care QI initiative.