Journal of palliative medicine
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The interaction of health care providers and hospital staff with patients and families at the end of life affects the parental grief experience. Both verbal and nonverbal communication are key components of this interaction. ⋯ This study helps to identify techniques that should be used by clinicians as they work with children with cancer and their families, particularly including patients in treatment decisions, ongoing relationship building, communicating with caring and empathy, using an interdisciplinary team for additional support, and pairing bad news with a plan of action.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Using Nurse Ratings of Physician Communication in the ICU to Identify Potential Targets for Interventions to Improve End-of-Life Care.
Communication among doctors, nurses, and families contributes to high-quality end-of-life care, but is difficult to improve. ⋯ Several topics of physician-nurse communication, as rated by nurses, were associated with higher nurse-rated quality of dying, whereas one topic, nurses' concerns for patient or family, was associated with poorer ratings. Higher nurse ratings of physician-family communication were uniformly associated with higher quality of dying, highlighting the importance of this communication. Physician support of family decision making was particularly important, suggesting a potential target for interventions to improve end-of-life care.
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Multicenter Study
Provision of Services in Perinatal Palliative Care: A Multicenter Survey in the United States.
Congenital anomalies account for 20% of neonatal and infant deaths in the United States. Perinatal palliative care is a recent addition to palliative care and is meant to meet the needs of families who choose to continue a pregnancy affected by a life-limiting diagnosis. ⋯ This study dramatically adds to the literature available on perinatal palliative care program settings, types, and domains of care. It is clear that there are a variety of types of programs and that the field is still developing. More work is needed to determine which quality measures are needed to address perinatal care needs in this population.