Browse Items · Pediatric Palliative Care Library

An Order Protocol For Respiratory Distress/acute Pain Crisis In Pediatric Palliative Care Patients: Medical And Nursing Staff Perceptions

BACKGROUND:
An order protocol for distress (OPD), including respiratory distress and acute pain crisis, has been established for pediatric palliative care patients at Sainte-Justine Hospital (SJH). After discussion with the patient/his or her family,…

Palliative Care Research - A Systematic Review Of Foci, Designs And Methods Of Research Conducted In Sweden Between 2007 And 2012.

BACKGROUND:
In 2007, a literature review was undertaken of palliative care research from Sweden during the 1970s-2006, paving the way for a follow-up study to explore the recent developments. The aim was to systematically examine palliative care…

Pediatrician Ambiguity In Understanding Palliative Sedation At The End Of Life

CONTEXT: Palliative sedation is a means of relieving intractable symptoms at the end of life, however, guidelines about its use lack consistency. In addition, ethical concerns persist around the practice. There are reports of palliative sedation in…

Psychosocial Health Outcomes for Family Caregivers Following the First Year of Bereavement

The authors examined psychosocial outcomes following the first year of bereavement, for 51 family caregivers, including both spouses and offspring. Researchers assessed caregivers during palliative care and again during the second year of…

The Impact of Mortality on Total Costs Within the ICU

OBJECTIVES: The high cost of critical care has engendered research into identifying influential factors. However, existing studies have not considered patient vital status at ICU discharge. This study sought to determine the effect of mortality upon…

Exploring NICU Nurses' Affective Responses to End-of-Life Care

BACKGROUND: The survival rate for infants born with life-threatening problems has improved greatly over the last few decades. Nevertheless, infants still die in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) every day. Despite existing standards of care, some…

"It's not about treatment, it's how to improve your life": The lived experience of occupational therapy in palliative care

OBJECTIVES: A key aim of palliative care is to improve the quality-of-life of people with a life-threatening illness. Occupational therapists are well positioned to contribute to this aim due to their broad range of interventions, client-centeredness…

Psychological distress, health, and socio-economic factors in caregivers of terminally ill patients: a nationwide population-based cohort study

PURPOSE: At some point in life, most people become caregivers to a terminally ill relative. Previous studies have shown that many caregivers experience psychological distress and declining physical health, but these studies have predominantly been…

Posttraumatic growth in parents caring for a child with a life-limiting illness: A structural equation model.

When parents first meet their child, they take on the entwined joys and burdens of caring for another person. Providing care for their child becomes the basic expectation, during health and illness, through the developmental milestones, into…

Differences On Psychosocial Outcomes Between Male And Female Caregivers Of Children With Life-limiting Illnesses

This secondary analysis of data examined the psychosocial outcomes of meaning in caregiving, self-esteem, optimism, burden, depression, spirituality, and posttraumatic growth in 273 parents caring for children with life-limiting illnesses to (a)…

Paediatric Palliative Care: A Survey Of Paediatricians And Family Practitioners

BACKGROUND: Paediatric palliative care focuses on the enhancement of the quality of life for a child and family through a combination of active and compassionate therapies intended to comfort and support the child and family who are living with a…

Self-assessment for competency and educational needs among pediatric resident on end-of-life care

Purpose: There is lack of standardized resident' curriculum or training for the rapidly emerging field of pediatric end of life care. Goal: To assess pediatric residents' perception of their clinical competence with end of life care and their…

The suffering in silence of older parents whose child died of cancer: A qualitative study

As life expectancy grows, the death of an adult child becomes a highly prevalent problem for older adults. The present study is based on nine interviews and explores the experience of parents (≥70 years) outliving an adult child. The bereaved parents…

End-of-life decisions in perinatal care: A view from health-care providers in Mexico

OBJECTIVE: To examine the opinions of a perinatal health team regarding decisions related to late termination of pregnancy and severely ill newborns. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An anonymous questionnaire was administered to physicians, social workers,…

Spirituality in patients with advanced illness: The role of symptom control, resilience and social network

In this study, we analyzed the relationships among clinical, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of patients with advanced illness. It was a cross-sectional study, with a sample of 108 patients in an advanced illness situation attended by…

Half of older Americans seen in emergency department in last month of life; most admitted to hospital, and many die there

Emergency department use contributes to high end-of-life costs and is potentially burdensome for patients and family members. We examined emergency department use in the last months of life for patients age sixty-five or older who died while enrolled…

Endogenous opioids in wound-site neutrophils of sternotomy patients

The impact of care pathways for patients with proximal femur fracture: rationale and design of a cluster-randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Proximal femur fracture (PFF) is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. The European Quality of Care Pathway (EQCP) study on PFF (NCT00962910) was designed to determine how care pathways (CP) for hospital treatment of PFF…

A pilot study of palliative medicine fellows' hospice home visits.

This was a prospective descriptive study of hospice physician home visits (HVs) conducted by Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellows. Our objectives were 1) to improve our knowledge of hospice care at home by describing physician HVs 2) to identify…

Is an advance care planning model feasible in community palliative care? A multi-site action research approach.

AIM: This article reports a study to determine the feasibility of an advance care planning model developed with Australian community palliative care services., BACKGROUND: An effective advance care planning programme involves an organizational wide…

The forgotten griever: a nationwide follow-up study of mortality subsequent to the death of a sibling

Previous findings have suggested that the loss of a family member is associated with mortality among bereaved family members. The least-studied familial relationship in the bereavement literature is that of siblings, although loss of a sibling may…

The effectiveness of a self-reporting bedside pain assessment tool for oncology inpatients

BACKGROUND: Pain is common during cancer treatment, and patient self-reporting of pain is an essential first step for ideal cancer pain management. However, many studies on cancer pain management report that, because pain may be underestimated, it is…

Survival duration among patients with a noncancer diagnosis admitted to a palliative care unit: a retrospective study

BACKGROUND: Palliative care unit (PCU) beds are a limited resource in Canada, so PCU admission is restricted to patients with a short prognosis. Anecdotally, PCUs further restrict admission of patients with noncancer diagnoses out of fear that they…

Increased beta-endorphin levels and generalized decreased pain thresholds in patients with limited jaw opening and movement-evoked pain from the temporomandibular joint

Usefulness of consecutive biomarkers measurement in the management of community-acquired pneumonia.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether procalcitonin (PCT), neopterin,

Factors important to patients' quality of life at the end of life

BACKGROUND: When curative treatments are no longer options for patients dying of cancer, the focus of care often turns from prolonging life to promoting quality of life (QOL). Few data exist on what predicts better QOL at the end of life (EOL) for…

Palliative medicine consultation for preparedness planning in patients receiving left ventricular assist devices as destination therapy.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the benefit of proactive palliative medicine consultation for delineation of goals of care and quality-of-life preferences before implantation of left ventricular assist devices as destination therapy (DT)., PATIENTS AND METHODS:…

End-of-life decision-making in Canada: the report by the Royal Society of Canada expert panel on end-of-life decision-making.

This report on end-of-life decision-making in Canada was produced by an international expert panel and commissioned by the Royal Society of Canada. It consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 reviews what is known about end-of-life care and opinions…

Adverse events in hospice and palliative care: a pilot study to determine feasibility of collection and baseline rates

BACKGROUND: Continuous quality improvement is fundamental in all health care, including hospice and palliative care. Identifying and systematically reducing symptomatic adverse events is limited in hospice and palliative care because these events are…

The Spanish version of the dementia quality of life questionnaire: a validation study

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to adapt and validate culturally the dementia-specific health-related quality of life instrument (HRQoL) into Spanish for patients with mild to moderate dementia. METHODS: Two forward translations, a reconciled…

Palliative medicine consultation impacts DNR designation and length of stay for terminal medical MICU patients.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a palliative medicine consultation on medical intensive care unit (MICU) and hospital length of stay, Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) designation, and location of death for MICU patients who…

An advance directive in two questions.

It has been two decades since advance directives have become an integral part of health care. Impediments to their optimal usage are common and multifactorial. Decisions commonly have to be made when patients are unable to do so or choose not to…

Evaluation of a Continuous Quality Improvement Initiative for End-Of-Life Care for Older Noncancer Patients

OBJECTIVES: The burden of suffering among patients with end-stage chronic diseases may be greater than those of cancer patients, as a result of longer duration of illness trajectory and high prevalence of symptoms, yet they may be less likely to…

Association between opioid prescribing patterns and opioid overdose-related deaths

CONTEXT: The rate of prescription opioid-related overdose death increased substantially in the United States over the past decade. Patterns of opioid prescribing may be related to risk of overdose mortality. OBJECTIVE: To examine the association of…

Relationships between symptom relief, quality of life, and satisfaction with hospice care

Hospices were founded to alleviate suffering at the end of life. Quality improvement in hospices should, therefore, target patients' subjective assessments of their care and its outcomes. However, little is known about the relationships among…

Survival estimates of severely disabled children

Identifying potential need for cancer palliation in Nova Scotia

OBJECTIVE: To assess the degree to which Nova Scotia cancer patients who may need palliative care are being referred to the comprehensive Halifax-based Palliative Care Program (PCP). METHODS: The authors conducted a retrospective, population-based…

Outcome evaluation in a home palliative care service

The complexity of assessing the impact of palliative care is much greater than in other fields of medicine, due to the shortcomings of traditional outcome indicators. We conducted a prospective study to describe the patient's quality of life at the…

The McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire: a measure of quality of life appropriate for people with advanced disease. A preliminary study of validity and acceptability

This is the first report on the McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire (MQOL), a questionnaire relevant to all phases of the disease trajectory for people with a life-threatening illness. This questionnaire differs from most others in three ways: the…

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