Journal of palliative medicine
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The study objective was to determine the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Ascites Index (FACIT-AI). ⋯ The Chinese version of the FACIT-AI has good reliability and validity and can be used as a tool to measure quality of life in Chinese patients with malignant ascites.
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Instrument Psychometrics: Parental Satisfaction and Quality Indicators of Perinatal Palliative Care.
Despite a life-limiting fetal diagnosis, prenatal attachment often occurs in varying degrees resulting in role identification by an individual as a parent. Parents recognize quality care and report their satisfaction when interfacing with health care providers. ⋯ Use of this instrument will enable clinicians and researchers to measure quality indicators and parental satisfaction. The instrument is useful for assessing, analyzing, and reporting data on quality for care delivered during the prenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal periods.
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Acupuncture is being used for treatment of cancer-related symptoms in numerous settings, yet empirical evidence supporting the effects of acupuncture in this setting is lacking. Group acupuncture is an economical way to provide acupuncture to patients at a reduced cost. ⋯ The results of this study provide evidence to support the efficacy of group acupuncture for pain, neuropathy, and digestive problems in persons with cancer. A minimum of four weekly treatments may be necessary before improvements are noted. Limitations include a retrospective design, incomplete symptom evaluation, and possible response bias. Future studies of group acupuncture for cancer-related symptoms should utilize a prospective, controlled design, use validated measures to thoroughly evaluate targeted symptoms, and include a more racially and ethnically diverse sample.
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Patients' and families' evaluations of health care, including palliative care, are widely used as performance measures. Survey scores may be affected by nonresponse bias, resulting in inaccurate performance evaluation. ⋯ Our results underscore the importance of appropriately addressing nonresponse in the use of quality-of-care metrics based on Bereaved Family Survey (BFS) data.
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Health professionals have begun to identify competencies needed for primary and specialist levels of palliative care practice, but little attention has been given to how these skills are acquired. ⋯ A representative sample of social workers practicing in health care identify high competence in essential aspects of palliative care. This speaks to an existing pool of clinicians who, if practicing to the top of their licenses, have the potential to provide primary palliative care and contribute to the person-family centered care called for in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report. Few programs exist to prepare social workers to work as specialists in palliative or end-of-life settings, and respondents identified key areas of practice that need to be integrated into graduate education to ensure that students, practitioners, and educators are better prepared to maximize the impact of health social work. Further research is needed to better understand how to prepare and train specialist-level palliative care social workers.