Articles: palliative-care.
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Sedation in palliative care, also called "palliative sedation", is an important treatment option for patients who experience unbearable suffering from treatment-refractory symptoms at the end of life. The aim is to reduce this suffering as far as possible by reduction of the patient's consciousness. ⋯ It then describes the process of sedation step by step: 0. Pre-emptive discussion of the option of sedation (in the context of advance care planning); 1. indication and decision making; 2. information and informed consent; 3. documentation when starting sedation; 4. start of sedation; 5. monitoring and adaption of sedation; 6. medical and nursing care and documentation during sedation; 7. care and processes after the death of the patient (if applicable).
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Background Palliative care (PC) has a positive effect on symptom burden, quality of life, psychosocial communication, prognostic understanding, mood, and quality of care at the end of life of patients with advanced cancer. Objectives To investigate the timing of the first palliative consultation and referral of advanced cancer patients to the palliative care service and their determinants at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSHRC), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Subjects and methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted at KFSHRC. ⋯ Conclusion In a considerable proportion of terminal cancer patients, palliative care was consulted late, and the timing of palliative care referral was too late/much too late among most of those consulted palliative care. Length of survival was higher among patients who reported early PC consultation and who with ideal referral time to PC services than others. Therefore, future considerations to facilitate early integration of palliative care in cancer patients are highly recommended through mainly improving staff education in communication skills and palliative care approach.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2021
Palliative care in Latin America: Are we making any progress? Assessing development over time using macro indicators.
Monitoring and reporting palliative care development serves to identify progress as well as remaining challenges for improvement. ⋯ Significant advances in palliative care development in Latin America have been achieved. The ALCP-II Index is useful for assessing and comparing palliative care development across countries.