International journal of palliative nursing
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The UK End of Life Care Strategy (EoLCS) requires specialist palliative care services to contribute to end-of-life care for all. This systematic review aims to critically appraise literature published in the UK to identify how specialist palliative care professionals can collaborate with other health professionals within four of the key National Service Framework areas: heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, neurological conditions, and dementia. Relevant literature was identified by electronic searches of various databases and websites and via secondary sources. ⋯ Thematic analysis was applied and the over-riding themes were barriers to collaboration, organizational issues, and patients' and carers' views. The review concludes that when a collaborative approach to care is used, quality end-of-life care is achieved. Each disease pathway needs greater clarity regarding how it links with the EoLCS.
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Palliative care in Malaysia developed in the 1990s to improve the quality of life of people with advanced cancer. Like many other countries, Malaysia faces its own challenges in providing palliative care to patients and their families. In Malaysian culture, families play a significant part in providing care to the dying. Connecting with families in patient care is therefore important. This paper reports a focused literature review evaluating studies on the care of the families of terminally ill people in palliative care environments in Malaysia. ⋯ The studies indicate the importance of the nurse-family interaction in providing optimal and culturally appropriate palliative care. This paper emphasizes the need for research into the nurse's role in family care and for developing a theory appropriate to the Malaysian culture and other countries with cultural diversity.
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The potential of spirituality to contribute to improving the quality of life of those experiencing life-threatening illness is yet to be fully realised in most palliative care settings. This may be due to many health professionals relegating spiritual issues to the background of palliative care instead of regarding spirituality as a domain equal to the physical, social, and psychological domains. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate, by reviewing the literature and providing examples from the author's personal experience as a chaplain, why spirituality should be considered on an equal footing with other key themes in palliative care, like relieving pain and advance care planning. It is hoped that this will create more self-awareness and generate greater discussion about the subject.
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Interprofessional collaboration occurs when health professionals from different disciplines work together to identify needs, solve problems, make joint decisions on how best to proceed, and evaluate outcomes collectively. Interprofessional collaboration supports patient-centred care and takes place through teamwork. Team interactions, wider organizational issues, and environmental structures, such as safety, quality, efficiency and effectiveness issues influence this model of care. ⋯ This article will discuss factors that affect interprofessional collaboration in relation to patients and families in palliative care. First, a definition of interprofessional collaboration is given, followed by an outline of the need for interprofessional collaboration. A brief discussion of key issues that influence collaboration follows, and a review of the implications for practice is presented.
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In the past, ethics committees and researchers have avoided research among vulnerable groups because of prevailing perceptions that such research is unethical and difficult. Taking an opposite stand, this article will argue that it is in fact unethical not to research vulnerable populations because, by excluding potential participants from research endeavours, they are being deprived of the benefits to be gained from research. Albeit well meaning, people in vulnerable populations are also being subjected to the paternalistic attitudes of those who believe they know what is in the best interests of others. ⋯ In contrast, the risks associated with researching vulnerable populations appear to be minimal. Yet, there is still evidence that health care professionals and other gatekeepers continue to hinder research amongst vulnerable populations through unilateral decision-making. This article will review existing literature on the topic of research amongst vulnerable populations, as well as contribute to the argument from the author's own study on a sensitive topic.