Journal of palliative medicine
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End-stage renal disease (ESRD) affects nearly 1400 new children each year in the United States. Morbidity and mortality rates remain high for pediatric patients with ESRD, including those that have received a renal transplant. ⋯ This study demonstrates one institution's experience with pediatric ESRD patients undergoing consultation with the pediatric palliative care service. More research is necessary in this population to better describe the best focus for palliative care teams.
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Comparative Study Observational Study
Gender Differences in Sexual Interest or Activity among Adults with Symptomatic Heart Failure.
Problems with sexual function can have a detrimental effect on quality of life. Symptomatic heart failure has been associated with problems with sexual function, although the majority of reports are focused on men and erectile dysfunction. Understanding women's perception of and gender differences in problems with sexual function in heart failure could yield new insights. ⋯ While men more commonly reported problems with sexual function, both genders were similarly highly bothered by this problem. These findings support the need for further research to assess and manage this symptom in both men and women with heart failure.
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While vast opportunities for using qualitative methods exist within palliative care research, few studies provide practical advice for researchers and clinicians as a roadmap to identify and utilize such opportunities. ⋯ This study provides a foundation for undertaking qualitative research within palliative care and serves as a framework for use by other palliative care researchers interested in qualitative methodologies.
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Palliative care demonstrably improves quality of life for the seriously ill in a manner that averts preventable health crises and their associated costs. Because of these outcomes, palliative care is now broadening its reach beyond hospitals, and hospice care for those near death, to patients and their families living in the community with chronic multimorbidities that have uncertain or long expected survival. In this article, we address research needed to enable policies supportive of palliative care access and quality, including changes in regulatory, accreditation, financing, and training approaches in the purview of policy makers. ⋯ His daughter has had to take on a second job because she is struggling to pay for his continued long-term care, which costs $6000 per month. Money she had saved for her own retirement and her daughter's college tuition is already gone. In retrospect, she realizes the surgical team did not discuss the possibility of his survival with chronic debility and long-term functional dependency, nor the fact that Medicare would not pay for the care he now requires.