Articles: palliative-care.
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Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative illness that causes disability through both motor and nonmotor symptoms. Family caregivers provide substantial care to persons living with PD, often at great personal cost. While spiritual well-being and spirituality have been suggested to promote resiliency in caregivers of persons living with cancer and dementia, this issue has not been explored in PD. ⋯ Conclusions: The present study suggests that both patient and caregiver factors are associated with spiritual well-being in PD. Further study is needed to understand the causal relationship of these factors and whether interventions to support caregiver spiritual well-being improve outcomes for caregivers or patients. Clinicaltrials.gov registration NCT02533921.
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Palliative medicine · Apr 2022
It's like standing in front of a prison fence - Dying during the SARS-CoV2 pandemic: A qualitative study of bereaved relatives' experiences.
Since the onset of the SARS CoV2 pandemic, protective and isolation measures had a strong impact on the care and support provided to seriously ill and dying people at the end-of-life. ⋯ Our results indicate that the strong need for closeness when a family member was dying could not be met due to the pandemic. This led to suffering that can be prevented. Visits need to be facilitated by making considered decisions on a case-by-case basis. For easy communication with relatives, approaches should be made by healthcare professionals and support for virtual communication should be offered. Furthermore, the results of the study can help to implement or develop ideas to enable dignified farewells even during pandemics.
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Palliative medicine · Apr 2022
Risk factors associated with poorer experiences of end-of-life care and challenges in early bereavement: Results of a national online survey of people bereaved during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Experiences of end-of-life care and early bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic are poorly understood. ⋯ Four clear risk factors were found for poorer end-of-life care and pandemic-related challenges in bereavement: place, cause and expectedness of death, and relationship to the deceased.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2022
Tackling the Pandemic a year later: Burnout among Home Palliative Care Clinicians.
The COVID-19 pandemic strongly challenged healthcare workers, disrupting their work routine and impacting on their professional life. A previous investigation explored levels of burnout and psychological morbidity among palliative care professionals (PCPs) during COVID-19 first wave. ⋯ Our findings show stable levels of burnout and decreasing levels of psychological morbidity among PCPs one year after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, more research is needed to detail the significance of emotional exhaustion dimension, a variable influenced by the survey.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2022
Cross Country Comparison of Expert Assessments of the Quality of Death and Dying 2021.
Few efforts have attempted to quantify how well countries deliver end-of-life (EOL) care. ⋯ This study provides an example of how a preference-based scoring algorithm and input from key stakeholders can be used to assess EOL health system performance. Results highlight the large disparities in assessments of the quality of EOL care across countries, and especially between the highest income countries and others.