Journal of palliative medicine
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Prescribing medications for nursing home residents with advanced dementia should focus on optimizing function and comfort, reducing unnecessary harms and aligning care goals with a palliative approach. ⋯ Use of potentially inappropriate medications in Australian nursing home residents with advanced dementia is common. A greater understanding of the rationale that underpins prescribing of medications is required.
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Racial/ethnic minority patients with nonhematologic malignancies (non-HM) have lower rates of hospice care, advance directive use, and palliative care utilization than non-Hispanic white (NHW) patients. Less is known regarding racial/ethnic minority patients with hematologic malignancies (HM). ⋯ Our findings suggest that racial/ethnic minority patients with HM have higher utilization of care at the end-of-life and lower rates of advance directives compared with NHW patients.
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Globally, an estimated eight million children could benefit from palliative care each year. Effective communication about children with life-limiting conditions is well recognized as a critical component of high-quality pediatric palliative care. ⋯ Healthcare users typically value communication with healthcare professionals: that (1) is open and honest, (2) acknowledges emotion, (3) actively involves healthcare users, and (4) occurs within established and trusting relationships.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Concordance between Goals of Care and Treatment Decisions for Persons with Dementia.
Nursing home (NH) residents with dementia experience high rates of intensive treatment near the end of life. Limited research examines whether treatment is concordant with goals of care (GOC). ⋯ Most families chose comfort as the primary GOC. Further research is needed to translate this preference into comfort-focused treatment plans for late-stage dementia. Clinicaltrials.gov : NCT01565642 (3/26/12).