Articles: palliative-care.
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Palliative medicine · Oct 2008
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyPreference for place of care and place of death in palliative care: are these different questions?
Place of death is at times suggested as an outcome for palliative care services. This study aimed to describe longitudinal preferences for place of care and place of death over time for patients and their caregivers. Longitudinal paired data of patient/caregiver dyads from a prospective unblinded cluster randomised control trial were used. ⋯ Place of care is not a euphemism for place of death; and further research is needed to delineate these. Patient and caregiver preferences may not change simultaneously. Implications of any mismatch between actual events and preferences need to be explored.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Massage therapy versus simple touch to improve pain and mood in patients with advanced cancer: a randomized trial.
Small studies of variable quality suggest that massage therapy may relieve pain and other symptoms. ⋯ Massage may have immediately beneficial effects on pain and mood among patients with advanced cancer. Given the lack of sustained effects and the observed improvements in both study groups, the potential benefits of attention and simple touch should also be considered in this patient population.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
The effect of music therapy on anxiety in patients who are terminally ill.
The literature supporting the use of music therapy in palliative care is growing. However, the number of quantitative research studies investigating the use of music therapy in palliative care, and specifically anxiety, is limited. ⋯ The study supports the use of music therapy to manage anxiety in terminally ill patients. Further studies are required to examine the effect of music therapy over a longer time period, as well as addressing other symptom issues.
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Critical care medicine · Apr 2008
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyUsing the medical record to evaluate the quality of end-of-life care in the intensive care unit.
We investigated whether proposed "quality markers" within the medical record are associated with family assessment of the quality of dying and death in the intensive care unit (ICU). ⋯ We identified chart-based variables associated with higher QODD scores. These QODD scores could serve as targets for measuring and improving the quality of end-of-life care in the ICU.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Family member satisfaction with end-of-life decision making in the ICU.
Families of ICU patients may be at risk for increased psychological morbidity due to end-of-life decision making. The identification of chart-based quality indicators of palliative care that predict family satisfaction with decision making may help to guide interventions to improve decision making and family outcomes. ⋯ Increased family satisfaction with decision making is associated with withdrawing life support and the documentation of palliative care indicators including the following: physician recommendations to withdraw life support; expressions of patients' wishes; and discussions of families' spiritual needs. These findings provide direction for future studies to investigate approaches to improving family satisfaction in end-of-life decision making. In addition, because there were few nonwhites in this study, these results may not be generalizable to more diverse populations. Future studies should target diverse populations in order to test whether similar factors are similarly important for end-of-life decision making.