American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Differences in End-of-life Care Decision Making Between Patients With and Without Cancer
Conclusion: Advance care planning in patients with incurable, noncancer disease is important to guarantee patient autonomy at the end of life. (Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine)
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 29, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Park, I. K., Jun, H. J., Park, S. J., Lim, G. J., Cho, S.-J., Song, A., Oh, S. Y. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research

A Prospective Study of the Clinical Content of Palliative Medicine Interdisciplinary Team Meetings
We report a prospective observations study of palliative medicine IDTM, which recorded the clinical issues discussed. One hundred and forty-five disparate clinical items were identified for 59 patients and were discussed by the IDTM in about 240 minutes. By content analysis and research meeting consensus, they were grouped into 9 agreed interdisciplinary themes. The 9 themes were then subjected to biostatistical analysis and 3 communication clusters identified. Themes consisted of 3 major communication clusters: (1) clinical services, (2) psychosocial, and (3) care plan. Two themes (information exchange and clinical transi...
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 29, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Powazki, R. D., Walsh, D., Shrotriya, S. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research

Does the Approach of Disclosing More Detailed Information of Cancer for the Terminally Ill Patients Improve the Quality of Communication Involving Patients, Families, and Medical Professionals?
Conclusions: This study revealed that disclosing more detailed information of cancer for terminally ill cancer patients contributed to improving the quality of communication, irrespective of the stage of disclosure. (Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine)
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 4, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Nakajima, N., Kusumoto, K., Onishi, H., Ishida, M. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research

Timing of Palliative Care Consultations and Recommendations: Understanding the Variability
Palliative care consultation teams (PCCTs) provide care that enhances quality of life. The effectiveness of PCCTs depends, however, on their timely utilization by other providers. The goal of this study was to examine the timing of palliative care consultation requests and responses at a single Veteran Affairs Medical Center. The median interval between admission and consultation request was 5 days (range = 0-73 days). The median interval between consultation request and death was 23 days (range = 0-847 days). In logistic regressions, timing variables were not significant predictors of whether consultation recommendations ...
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 4, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Kozlov, E., Carpenter, B. D., Thorsten, M., Heiland, M., Agarwal, A. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research

The Effect of Social Support and Meaning of Life on the Quality-of-Life Care for Terminally Ill Patients
In conclusion, experiencing one’s life as meaningful is positively related to the well-being for dying patients. Social support provided by a close relative had a positive influence on the patient’s meaning of life and overall life satisfaction. (Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine)
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 4, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Dobrikova, P., Pcolkova, D., AlTurabi, L. K., West, D. J. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research

Potential Conflicting Interests for Surgeons in End-of-Life Care
Thirty-day mortality represents a variable that is commonly used to measure the quality of surgical care. The definition of 30-day mortality and the application of a risk adjustment to its measurement may vary among different organizations comparing physician quality. In the midst of this confusion, conflicting interests arise for surgeons who must weigh the potential benefit of surgical interventions to individual patients versus the potential loss of access by future patients should 30-day mortality ratings be adversely affected. Similarly, surgeons may become adversely impacted by the lack of compensation from avoiding ...
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 4, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Golden, A. G., Silverman, M. A., Heller, A., Loyal, M., Cendan, J. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research

Palliative Care in the Intensive Care Unit: Are Residents Well Trained to Provide Optimal Care to Critically ill Patients?
Discussion: Teaching should focus on overcoming the identified barriers especially communication with patients and their families. More studies are needed to identify the best method to teach Palliative care in the ICU. (Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine)
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 4, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Kamel, G., Paniagua, M., Uppalapati, A. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research

Examining Forms of Spiritual Care Provided in the Advanced Cancer Setting
In conclusion, SC is infrequent, and core elements of SC—spiritual history taking and chaplaincy referrals—represent a minority of SC. Spiritual care training predicts provision of SC, indicting its importance to advancing SC in the clinical setting. (Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine)
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 4, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Epstein-Peterson, Z. D., Sullivan, A. J., Enzinger, A. C., Trevino, K. M., Zollfrank, A. A., Balboni, M. J., VanderWeele, T. J., Balboni, T. A. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research

The Stress of Sadness: The Most Stressful Symptoms for Hospice Family Caregivers
This study investigated the most stressful patient symptoms as reported by 111 hospice family caregivers of cancer (n=66) and cardiopulmonary (n=45) patients. Researchers calculated the mean level of stress caregivers attributed to 32 different patient symptoms commonly encountered at end of life. They found the symptoms perceived as most stressful for caregivers were psychological in nature. Study findings suggest that members of the hospice interdisciplinary team should connect patients and their caregivers to various types of support to address psychological symptoms, benefitting patients and caregivers alike. (Source: ...
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 4, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Ratkowski, K. L., Washington, K. T., Craig, K. W., Albright, D. L. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research

Attitudes Toward and Experiences in End-of-life Care Education in the Intensive Care Unit: A Survey of Resident Physicians
Introduction: Resident physicians provide the most physician care to intensive care unit (ICU) patients. The body of literature about residents’ palliative and end-of-life care (PC/EOLC) experiences in the ICU is limited. To our knowledge, this is the first study to assess resident physicians in multiple specialties regarding PC/EOLC in the ICU. Methods: A Web-based survey was developed and administered to all resident physicians in a single academic institution who had completed at least 1 dedicated ICU rotation. Results: Residents reported moderate comfort in dealing with end-of-life (EOL) issues and felt somewha...
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 4, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Chen, E., McCann, J. J., Lateef, O. B. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research

Caregivers Confronted With the Withdrawal of Artificial Nutrition at the End of Life: Prevalence of and Reasons for Experienced Difficulties
Conclusion: Health care providers seem to have a lack of information and consensus regarding the withdrawal of artificial nutrition at the end of life. The ethical dimension of withdrawing artificial nutrition in palliative care has a strong impact on care providers, regardless of the circumstances of the withdrawal. (Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine)
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 4, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Piot, E., Leheup, B. F., Goetz, C., Quilliot, D., Niemier, J.-Y., Wary, B., Ducrocq, X. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research

Expectation in Life Review: A Term of Spiritual Needs Easily Understood by Chinese Hospice Patients
This study investigated expectations expressed during life review and tried to prove that the expectation was intelligible term for spiritual needs in Chinese hospice from May 2011 to June 2013. Among the 107 recruited patients, families were the most frequent emotion-expressing recipients, and 133 expectations related to patients’ spiritual needs were identified. The emotion-expressing recipients and the patient’s expectations were not affected by demographic characteristics. The expectations in life review with hospice patients and their families had the features of spiritual essence. The identified expectati...
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 4, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Deng, D., Deng, Q., Liu, X., Xie, C. H., Wu, X. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research

Students, Severe Illness, and Palliative Care: Results From a Pilot Study on a School-Based Intervention
This study was aimed at piloting a school-based intervention on severe illness, within a project focused on spreading knowledge of palliative care among high school students (phases 0-2 Medical Research Council Framework). The intervention entailed the screening of a topic-related movie, 2 classroom meetings, and the development of a class-based multimedia production. Five classes from 5 high schools participated in this study, and a before–after evaluation was used to assess intervention feasibility and impact. Valid questionnaires were filled in by 84% (before) and 79% (after) of the 89 students. Concerning student...
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 4, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Beccaro, M., Gollo, G., Ceccon, S., Giordano, M., Salvini, E., Vignali, S., Costantini, M., Di Leo, S. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research

Prior Study of Cross-Cultural Validation of McGill Quality-of-Life Questionnaire in Mainland Mandarin Chinese Patients With Cancer
The validation of McGill quality-of-life questionnaire (MQOLQ) in mainland China, which had already been used in multicultural palliative care background including Hong Kong and Taiwan, remained unknown. Eligible patients completed the translated Chinese version of McGill questionnaires (MQOL-C), which had been examined before the study. Construct validity was preliminarily assessed through exploratory factor analysis extracting 4 factors that construct a new hypothesis model and then the original model was proved to be better confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Internal consistency of all the subscales was within 0...
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 4, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Hu, L., Li, J., Wang, X., Payne, S., Chen, Y., Mei, Q. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research

The Cost of Inappropriate Care at the End of life: Implications for an Aging Population
We present the case of an 86-year-old female who spent almost 3 months in our ICU prior to her death. The fully allocated hospital costs for this patient were estimated to be US$254 945 (US$5100/d). With the increasing age of the population and the projected increased demand for ICU beds, we review the benefits and burdens of admitting elderly patients to the ICU. (Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine)
Source: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine - October 4, 2015 Category: Palliative Care Authors: Marik, P. E. Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research