Articles: palliative-care.
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Palliative medicine · Sep 2023
'That just doesn't feel right at times' - lone working practices, support and educational needs of newly employed Healthcare Assistants providing 24/7 palliative care in the community: A qualitative interview study.
Healthcare assistants working in hospice at home settings have a pivotal role in supporting people dying at home and their family caregivers. Some healthcare assistants are working alone in patients' homes, which magnifies some of the issues reported for those working closely with other team members. There is a dearth of evidence in terms of education, training and support needs for healthcare assistants when working alone. ⋯ Given the complexities of their role within community palliative care teams, there are key learning points in relation to healthcare assistant preparation. Education and support networks should be prioritised to reduce isolation and support ongoing learning and development of newly employed healthcare assistants; all of which is vital to ensure safety and quality of care for the growing number of people they support in the community.
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As more jurisdictions consider legalizing medical assistance in dying or assisted death (AD), there is an ongoing debate about whether AD is driven by socioeconomic deprivation or inadequate supportive services. Attention has shifted away from population studies that refute this narrative, and focused on individual cases reported in the media that would appear to support these concerns. ⋯ Ultimately, we cannot justify having a different response to these reports when they apply to AD instead of PC, and nobody has argued that PC should be criminalized in response to such reports. If we are skeptical of the oversight mechanisms used for AD in Canada, we must be equally skeptical of the oversight mechanisms used for end-of-life care in every jurisdiction where AD is not legal, and ask whether prohibiting AD protects the lives of the vulnerable any better than legalization of AD with safeguards.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2023
Using design thinking to promote goals of care conversations with seriously ill patients.
Goals of care (GOC) conversations can improve serious illness outcomes such as pain and symptom management and patient satisfaction. ⋯ We found that design thinking techniques offered a useful bridge between RE-AIM strategy and clinical.