Background: This cross-sectional investigative study aimed to determine student nurses’ attitudes towards end-of-life care. Methods: This study used a descriptive research design with stratified sampling to survey st...Background: This cross-sectional investigative study aimed to determine student nurses’ attitudes towards end-of-life care. Methods: This study used a descriptive research design with stratified sampling to survey student nurses enrolled in one of four nursing colleges in China from January 2023 to December 2023. Student nurses’ general demographic and prior related information, attitudes towards death and attitudes towards end-of-life care were determined using a general information questionnaire, the Death Attitude Profile—Revised scale and the Professional End-of-Life Attitude Scale (PEAS), respectively. Results: The total PEAS score was 122.91 ± 16.123. Significant differences were noted in the attitude towards end-of-life care scores according to sources of end-of-life care knowledge (P Conclusions: Student nurses lacked an optimistic attitude towards end-of-life care, which was influenced by differences in the sources of end-of-life care knowledge.展开更多
BACKGROUND End stage liver disease(ESLD)represents a growing health concern characterized by elevated morbidity and mortality,particularly among individual ineligible for liver transplantation.The demand for palliativ...BACKGROUND End stage liver disease(ESLD)represents a growing health concern characterized by elevated morbidity and mortality,particularly among individual ineligible for liver transplantation.The demand for palliative care(PC)is pronounced in patients grappling with ESLD and acute on chronic liver failure(ACLF).Unfortunately,the historical underutilization of PC in ESLD patients,despite their substantial needs and those of their family caregivers,underscores the imperative of seamlessly integrating PC principles into routine healthcare practices across the entire disease spectrum.AIM To comprehensively investigate the evidence surrounding the benefits of incorporating PC into the comprehensive care plan for individuals confronting ESLD and/or ACLF.METHODS A systematic search in the Medline(PubMed)database was performed using a predetermined search command,encompassing studies published in English without any restrictions on the publication date.Subsequently,the retrieved studies were manually examined.Simple descriptive analyses were employed to summarize the results.RESULTS The search strategies yielded 721 references.Following the final analysis,32 fulllength references met the inclusion criteria and were consequently incorporated into the study.Meticulous data extraction from these 32 studies was undertaken,leading to the execution of a comprehensive narrative systematic review.The review found that PC provides significant benefits,reducing symptom burden,depressive symptoms,readmission rates,and hospital stays.Yet,barriers like the appeal of transplants and misconceptions about PC hinder optimal utilization.Integrating PC early,upon the diagnosis of ESLD and ACLF,regardless of transplant eligibility and availability,improves the quality of life for these patients.CONCLUSION Despite the substantial suffering and poor prognosis associated with ESLD and ACLF,where liver transplantation stands as the only curative treatment,albeit largely inaccessible,PC services have been overtly provided too late in the course of the illness.A comprehensive understanding of PC's pivotal role in treating ESLD and ACLF is crucial for overcoming these barriers,involving healthcare providers,patients,and caregivers.展开更多
<em>Aim</em><span "=""><span>: Fundamentally, aggressive care is considered to be avoided for the patients at the end of life. However, this is not always adhered in real-world p...<em>Aim</em><span "=""><span>: Fundamentally, aggressive care is considered to be avoided for the patients at the end of life. However, this is not always adhered in real-world practice. We attempted to determine whether, and if so how, the aggressive care is made for patients with ovarian cancer during the last month prior death. </span><i><span>Methods</span></i><span>: Enrolled were a total of 104 patients with ovarian cancer (including fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer), who were treated in Kuopio University Hospital in Finland during 2009-2014. The aggressive care was defined according to the standards outlined by the National Quality Forum;shortly, chemotherapy, emergency-room/intensive-care visit/admission, hospital admission, and death in hospital.</span></span><span "=""> </span><i><span>Results</span></i><span>: Two thirds of patients (67%) had received at least one form of aggressive care during the last month of their lives. Especially, admission in hospital in the last 30 days of life was the most common form of aggressive cancer care. Younger patients (<72 years) received significantly more often aggressive care than the older patients (80% vs 43%, p</span><span "=""> </span><span>=</span><span "=""> </span><span "=""><span>0.004). Those women that underwent end-of-life discussions earlier than one month prior to death had significantly less aggressive care than those women that had discussions during the last month (48% vs. 90%,</span><i> </i><span>p</span></span><span "=""> </span><span>=</span><span "=""> </span><span "=""><span>0.001). </span><i><span>Conclusions</span></i><span>: Ovarian cancer patients received commonly at least one form of aggressive care at the end of their lives. More efforts should be taken to improve the quality of palliative and end-of-life care.</span></span>展开更多
As one of the methods of palliative care,aromatherapy has been applied gradually in clinical nursing work in China in recent years.Through aromatherapy,terminal cancer patients can get not only relieves of physical sy...As one of the methods of palliative care,aromatherapy has been applied gradually in clinical nursing work in China in recent years.Through aromatherapy,terminal cancer patients can get not only relieves of physical symptoms,but also spiritual relaxation and peace,thus have improved quality of life at the end stage.In this paper,we report in detail about how aromatherapy was applied for symptom control in a cancer patient with unknown primary malignancy and multiple metastasis and its effects on the terminal life of this patient.展开更多
Purpose: This study aims to detail what nursing students learned from watching the film “Mitorishi”, which was used among the teaching materials in a gerontological nursing practice course in nursing education in Ja...Purpose: This study aims to detail what nursing students learned from watching the film “Mitorishi”, which was used among the teaching materials in a gerontological nursing practice course in nursing education in Japan, and demonstrate the applicability of using the film as an element relevant to the teaching of end-of-life care in Japan. Methods: The participants were fourth-year nursing students at University A who had watched the film “Mitorishi” during the course, had submitted a report on what they learned, and provided informed consent to the study participation. The reports submitted by the participants were used as data and analyzed qualitatively using the content analysis approach. Results: The analysis identified the following five categories (number of codes): Characteristics of life during the final days (9), Importance of views on life and death (3), Importance of end-of-life care (3), Assistance in preparation for the final days of life (13), and Understanding the profession of transition doula (9). Discussion: The five categories show that the students have learned about the “role of nurses at the time of end-of-life care” while “visualizing end-of-life care” and learning “preparedness for end-of-life care”. These findings suggest that using the film “Mitorishi” in the teaching curriculum is effective for learning about end-of-life care for older people.展开更多
<div style="text-align:justify;"> This integrative review aimed to investigate factors relating to end-of-life care of nurses. The review was conducted according to PICo (Participant, area of Interest,...<div style="text-align:justify;"> This integrative review aimed to investigate factors relating to end-of-life care of nurses. The review was conducted according to PICo (Participant, area of Interest, and Context). Keywords identified were: “nurse” AND “end-of-life care” (“dyingcare” OR “‘deathcare”, OR “near end stage of life care” OR “palliative care” OR “hospice care” OR “comfortable care in near death” OR “quality of dying patients care”), AND “nurses”. The database searched through PubMed, ProQuest, Google Scholar, Web of Science and SCOPUS. The searching inclusion criteria were limited to English and Chinese language studies about nurses’ end-of-life care from 2010 to 2019, yielding 258 English language articles and 2Chinese language articles. Results: A total of fifteen articles were selected based on inclusion criteria. Two subjects were obtained from the results that related to nurses’ care during the process of end of life: 1) Nurses’ demographic factors;and 2) Modifiable factors. Nurses’ demographic factors were age, years of work experience, level of education and experience of the death of a family member/friend. Modifiable factors included knowledge, attitude, confidence, relationship, environment and resources, communication, nursing activities, philosophy and culture of care, skills and training. These factors were explored in various areas and majority of the studies had been conducted in public government hospitals. Conclusion: The major power ability of care was observed in nurses who acted the significant part in caring for the terminally ill during the dying process. Caring for dying patients was related to many factors which could affect the fabric of nursing care at the end stage of life. The elements found in this review could lead to recommendations with implications for nursing practice so as to improve and enhance end-of-life care. Some factors could be considered like predictors affecting nursing practice for chronical ill patients in further research. In addition, nurses’ tranquility care in community hospitals should be more focused. </div>展开更多
Introduction: Education and skill enhancement in palliative and end of life care is rarely part of the foundational medical education curriculum. The progress of student physicians tends to be measured by their abilit...Introduction: Education and skill enhancement in palliative and end of life care is rarely part of the foundational medical education curriculum. The progress of student physicians tends to be measured by their ability to synthesize and demonstrate basic medical knowledge and clinical skills but offers little assessment of the maturation of attitudes or their values. The University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine (UNECOM), immerses second year medical students in a hospice home for 48 hours to enhance students’ perspectives in interprofessional palliative and end of life care. Methods: This project utilized qualitative ethnographic and autobiographic research designs. Two female second year medical students (27 y/o & 26 y/o) were immersed for 48 hours into a local hospice home, sleeping in a bed where others had died, to answer the question: “What is it like for ME to live in the Hospice Home for 48 hours and how does this contribute to my future as a practitioner?” Data were collected in the form of journal notes for pre-fieldwork, fieldwork, and post-fieldwork and included subjective and objective reporting of observations, experiences, and patient/family encounters. Analyses included journal review and thematic categorization and coding through content analysis. Results: Themes common to both students that factored in the research question and their prior stated interest areas of medical humanities and person-centered care at end of life were identified. Three themes were selected for this article: 1) Person-Centered Experiences, 2) Spectrum of Communication, and 3) Introspection: Attitudes and Values. The process of living in the hospice home for 48 hours revealed students’ attitudes about various disease processes, their personal experiences with death and dying, and their assumptions about how patients approach death. Conclusion: This Hospice Home Immersion project provided both an educational approach and learning environment that was effective in advancing medical students’ attitudes, skills, and knowledge as evidenced by their self-reported life altering learning about end of life and palliative care.展开更多
Palliative care in the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region despite some progress made since the first hospice was opened in Zimbabwe in 1979, still lags far behind that of countries with developed economies, and relativel...Palliative care in the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region despite some progress made since the first hospice was opened in Zimbabwe in 1979, still lags far behind that of countries with developed economies, and relatively suffers from not being wholly included into mainstream public health service delivery in SSA. The situation is made worse due to relatively poor and pervasive socio-politico-economic factors and the challenge of the changing and increasing non-communicable disease epidemiology in SSA countries. This situation results in a tension between scarce resources and service needs/provision which prevails in a good number of SSA countries. In large part the situation where palliative care, end of life and the death trajectory converge in SSA countries currently portrays one of scarcity of resources and suffering for those ill SSA patients who need the services. This article is an overview of the current situation as pertains to palliative care services in the SSA region and some of the factors that contribute to or perpetuate the current state of palliative care delivery in SSA countries.展开更多
Background: The introduction of care pathway plans for end-of-life cares such as the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) reveals a unique possibility for inter professional collaboration. Knowledge of symptom relief and how ...Background: The introduction of care pathway plans for end-of-life cares such as the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) reveals a unique possibility for inter professional collaboration. Knowledge of symptom relief and how to meet the patients’ needs at the last stage of the palliative phase are essential for the nurses’ approach and care actions, but the documentation of such implementations is still rare and sometimes criticized. Aim: To explore and describe nurses’ experiences of using the LCP plan with patients hospitalized with heart failure at the end-of-life stage. An explorative design was applied, using qualitative content analysis of 20 interviews with nurses practicing the LCP plan in two district hospitals in Norway. Results: The nurses found the LCP plan as quality assurance for treatment and care in patients with heart failure in the last hours and days of life. The use of the LCP plan implied: 1) individualized adjustment, 2) symptom relief and 3) a holistic approach. Conclusion: Nurses experienced that using the LCP plan as a comprehensive action plan contributed in the decision making process and improved inter professional communication. Using the LCP plan should be seen as a tool to practice individualized and holistic nursing to patients at the end-of-life and their families, as well as a purposeful relief of symptoms associated with heart failure.展开更多
Breathlessness, fatigue, and anxiety are distressing symptoms for patients with advanced lung cancer, however, they are not relieved by palliative RT and are often viewed as neglected areas of clinical practice. This ...Breathlessness, fatigue, and anxiety are distressing symptoms for patients with advanced lung cancer, however, they are not relieved by palliative RT and are often viewed as neglected areas of clinical practice. This paper aims to review def initions of, and explore patients' experiences of, breathlessness, fatigue, and anxiety. Further, it will outline existing approaches, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological, to treat them. Current treatments and perceptions of these symptoms will be discussed in the context of Hong Kong health care service. The review of literature also shows that breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety appears to have similar emotional origins. A contemporary approach of using a common pyschoeducational intervention to treat these symptoms together as a cluster in end of life care will be discussed.展开更多
Background: involving patient in end of life decision is important to understand their wishes and preferences to help health care providers in improving the quality of dying and minimizing suffering. Aim: the aim of t...Background: involving patient in end of life decision is important to understand their wishes and preferences to help health care providers in improving the quality of dying and minimizing suffering. Aim: the aim of this review was to provide a detailed examination of the available literature related to patients’ involvement in decision making at end of life. Design: a systematic review following the PRISMA protocol was used, the review protocol was registered on PROSPERO: CRD42019128556. Data sources: we conducted a literature search in two electronic databases “CINAHL and Medline” during March-April 2019. The retrieved articles were included if they were: research reports or literature review;examined patient involvement in end-of-life discussions;full text publications, written in English and published from 2000-2019. Results: a total of (22) articles were included in the review;there was diversity in the purposes and design approach of the retrieved studies. The available literature explored patient’s involvement at end-of-life decision making through;describing current practices;understanding perspectives of end of life discussions;investigating the impact and identifying the barriers and facilitators of patients’ involvement in end of life discussions. Conclusion: involvement in end-of-life discussions improved the recognition of patients’ wishes, improved death experience, and decreased posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety among family members. Despite the documented benefits, some barriers against patient’s involvement in end-of-life decisions were recognized;lack of awareness;lack of education, training and experience;concerns about ethical and legal issues;and personal preferences of doctors or nurses were among the most commonly identified barriers.展开更多
Background: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMS) are essential tools in clinical practice and research to assess patients’ needs from their unique perspectives. They allow the healthcare team to monitor patient ...Background: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMS) are essential tools in clinical practice and research to assess patients’ needs from their unique perspectives. They allow the healthcare team to monitor patient status and concerns outside the clinical setting. However, the real innovation in this field is its digitization: electronic patient-reported outcome measures (ePROMs). Aims: This review aimed to get an overview of whether these new technologies are being used to aid palliative care teams in their daily struggle to provide comfort to their patients. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of articles retrieved from PubMed and Web of Science, up to November 2021. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. The search strategy yielded 242 records, of which 13 met the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. In addition, relevant information related to ePROMs was extracted from each study. Results: Outcomes were grouped into the quality of life assessment, symptom burden and simple assessments, and the decision to introduce Palliative Cures (PC). In 61.5% of cases, ePROMs positively impacted patients’ quality of life. Furthermore, in 46.15% of cases, ePROMs led Primary Care (PC) teams to make an ethical decision;the same relative value as in the circumstances did not define the direction in ethical terms. Conclusion: Remind professionals and patients that these tools exist and can be applied in many situations. If used correctly, they can provide patients with a better quality of life and more complete information for professionals.展开更多
Background: Nurses providing end-of-life care play an important role in providing support to both the patient and his/her family during one of their most difficult time. Patients in this stage do not only require phys...Background: Nurses providing end-of-life care play an important role in providing support to both the patient and his/her family during one of their most difficult time. Patients in this stage do not only require physical care but emotional support as well. Aside from being a care provider, nurses should be able to utilize their knowledge in therapeutic communication in order for the patients and his/her family members to verbalize their feelings and concerns. Objective: The purpose of this study is to identify whether nurses project sympathy or empathy while providing end-of-life care. It also aims to determine their lived experiences while proving care at this stage. Methodology: This study utilized the mixed convergent parallel design wherein both the quantitative research and qualitative research were employed. Result and Discussion: A factor analysis was conducted on 12 items with maximum likelihood extraction method and oblique (Promax) rotation method. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure verified the sampling adequacy for the analysis, KMO = 0.792 (“meritorious” according to Kaiser (1974)). Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity (χ2 (66) = 1007.294, p α = 0.881, sympathy α = 0.804, and cognitive empathy α = 0.728). Correlations among the factors were r = 0.315 for affective empathy and sympathy, r = 0.295 for sympathy and cognitive empathy, and r = 0.356 for affective empathy and cognitive empathy. Emergent key themes and subthemes are based on participants’ responses. The key themes are heart-touching moments of nurses in providing end-of-life care, challenges encountered by nurses in providing end-of-life care and adaptive strategies used by nurses to the challenges they face in providing end-of-life care. Conclusion: Most nurses during end-of-life care express affective empathy, followed by sympathy and lastly cognitive empathy. Nurses are encouraged to show and practice affective and cognitive empathy rather than using sympathy in caring patient and dealing with family member in the end-of-life situations. Despite the challenges that nurses faced, they are able to provide quality care by utilizing several adaptive strategies such as listening and understanding, showing empathy, providing holistic care, being spiritual and being aware of the role as caregiver.展开更多
文摘Background: This cross-sectional investigative study aimed to determine student nurses’ attitudes towards end-of-life care. Methods: This study used a descriptive research design with stratified sampling to survey student nurses enrolled in one of four nursing colleges in China from January 2023 to December 2023. Student nurses’ general demographic and prior related information, attitudes towards death and attitudes towards end-of-life care were determined using a general information questionnaire, the Death Attitude Profile—Revised scale and the Professional End-of-Life Attitude Scale (PEAS), respectively. Results: The total PEAS score was 122.91 ± 16.123. Significant differences were noted in the attitude towards end-of-life care scores according to sources of end-of-life care knowledge (P Conclusions: Student nurses lacked an optimistic attitude towards end-of-life care, which was influenced by differences in the sources of end-of-life care knowledge.
文摘BACKGROUND End stage liver disease(ESLD)represents a growing health concern characterized by elevated morbidity and mortality,particularly among individual ineligible for liver transplantation.The demand for palliative care(PC)is pronounced in patients grappling with ESLD and acute on chronic liver failure(ACLF).Unfortunately,the historical underutilization of PC in ESLD patients,despite their substantial needs and those of their family caregivers,underscores the imperative of seamlessly integrating PC principles into routine healthcare practices across the entire disease spectrum.AIM To comprehensively investigate the evidence surrounding the benefits of incorporating PC into the comprehensive care plan for individuals confronting ESLD and/or ACLF.METHODS A systematic search in the Medline(PubMed)database was performed using a predetermined search command,encompassing studies published in English without any restrictions on the publication date.Subsequently,the retrieved studies were manually examined.Simple descriptive analyses were employed to summarize the results.RESULTS The search strategies yielded 721 references.Following the final analysis,32 fulllength references met the inclusion criteria and were consequently incorporated into the study.Meticulous data extraction from these 32 studies was undertaken,leading to the execution of a comprehensive narrative systematic review.The review found that PC provides significant benefits,reducing symptom burden,depressive symptoms,readmission rates,and hospital stays.Yet,barriers like the appeal of transplants and misconceptions about PC hinder optimal utilization.Integrating PC early,upon the diagnosis of ESLD and ACLF,regardless of transplant eligibility and availability,improves the quality of life for these patients.CONCLUSION Despite the substantial suffering and poor prognosis associated with ESLD and ACLF,where liver transplantation stands as the only curative treatment,albeit largely inaccessible,PC services have been overtly provided too late in the course of the illness.A comprehensive understanding of PC's pivotal role in treating ESLD and ACLF is crucial for overcoming these barriers,involving healthcare providers,patients,and caregivers.
文摘<em>Aim</em><span "=""><span>: Fundamentally, aggressive care is considered to be avoided for the patients at the end of life. However, this is not always adhered in real-world practice. We attempted to determine whether, and if so how, the aggressive care is made for patients with ovarian cancer during the last month prior death. </span><i><span>Methods</span></i><span>: Enrolled were a total of 104 patients with ovarian cancer (including fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer), who were treated in Kuopio University Hospital in Finland during 2009-2014. The aggressive care was defined according to the standards outlined by the National Quality Forum;shortly, chemotherapy, emergency-room/intensive-care visit/admission, hospital admission, and death in hospital.</span></span><span "=""> </span><i><span>Results</span></i><span>: Two thirds of patients (67%) had received at least one form of aggressive care during the last month of their lives. Especially, admission in hospital in the last 30 days of life was the most common form of aggressive cancer care. Younger patients (<72 years) received significantly more often aggressive care than the older patients (80% vs 43%, p</span><span "=""> </span><span>=</span><span "=""> </span><span "=""><span>0.004). Those women that underwent end-of-life discussions earlier than one month prior to death had significantly less aggressive care than those women that had discussions during the last month (48% vs. 90%,</span><i> </i><span>p</span></span><span "=""> </span><span>=</span><span "=""> </span><span "=""><span>0.001). </span><i><span>Conclusions</span></i><span>: Ovarian cancer patients received commonly at least one form of aggressive care at the end of their lives. More efforts should be taken to improve the quality of palliative and end-of-life care.</span></span>
基金supported by the Educational Reform Project of Peking Union Medical College(2015zlgc0120)~~
文摘As one of the methods of palliative care,aromatherapy has been applied gradually in clinical nursing work in China in recent years.Through aromatherapy,terminal cancer patients can get not only relieves of physical symptoms,but also spiritual relaxation and peace,thus have improved quality of life at the end stage.In this paper,we report in detail about how aromatherapy was applied for symptom control in a cancer patient with unknown primary malignancy and multiple metastasis and its effects on the terminal life of this patient.
文摘Purpose: This study aims to detail what nursing students learned from watching the film “Mitorishi”, which was used among the teaching materials in a gerontological nursing practice course in nursing education in Japan, and demonstrate the applicability of using the film as an element relevant to the teaching of end-of-life care in Japan. Methods: The participants were fourth-year nursing students at University A who had watched the film “Mitorishi” during the course, had submitted a report on what they learned, and provided informed consent to the study participation. The reports submitted by the participants were used as data and analyzed qualitatively using the content analysis approach. Results: The analysis identified the following five categories (number of codes): Characteristics of life during the final days (9), Importance of views on life and death (3), Importance of end-of-life care (3), Assistance in preparation for the final days of life (13), and Understanding the profession of transition doula (9). Discussion: The five categories show that the students have learned about the “role of nurses at the time of end-of-life care” while “visualizing end-of-life care” and learning “preparedness for end-of-life care”. These findings suggest that using the film “Mitorishi” in the teaching curriculum is effective for learning about end-of-life care for older people.
文摘<div style="text-align:justify;"> This integrative review aimed to investigate factors relating to end-of-life care of nurses. The review was conducted according to PICo (Participant, area of Interest, and Context). Keywords identified were: “nurse” AND “end-of-life care” (“dyingcare” OR “‘deathcare”, OR “near end stage of life care” OR “palliative care” OR “hospice care” OR “comfortable care in near death” OR “quality of dying patients care”), AND “nurses”. The database searched through PubMed, ProQuest, Google Scholar, Web of Science and SCOPUS. The searching inclusion criteria were limited to English and Chinese language studies about nurses’ end-of-life care from 2010 to 2019, yielding 258 English language articles and 2Chinese language articles. Results: A total of fifteen articles were selected based on inclusion criteria. Two subjects were obtained from the results that related to nurses’ care during the process of end of life: 1) Nurses’ demographic factors;and 2) Modifiable factors. Nurses’ demographic factors were age, years of work experience, level of education and experience of the death of a family member/friend. Modifiable factors included knowledge, attitude, confidence, relationship, environment and resources, communication, nursing activities, philosophy and culture of care, skills and training. These factors were explored in various areas and majority of the studies had been conducted in public government hospitals. Conclusion: The major power ability of care was observed in nurses who acted the significant part in caring for the terminally ill during the dying process. Caring for dying patients was related to many factors which could affect the fabric of nursing care at the end stage of life. The elements found in this review could lead to recommendations with implications for nursing practice so as to improve and enhance end-of-life care. Some factors could be considered like predictors affecting nursing practice for chronical ill patients in further research. In addition, nurses’ tranquility care in community hospitals should be more focused. </div>
文摘Introduction: Education and skill enhancement in palliative and end of life care is rarely part of the foundational medical education curriculum. The progress of student physicians tends to be measured by their ability to synthesize and demonstrate basic medical knowledge and clinical skills but offers little assessment of the maturation of attitudes or their values. The University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine (UNECOM), immerses second year medical students in a hospice home for 48 hours to enhance students’ perspectives in interprofessional palliative and end of life care. Methods: This project utilized qualitative ethnographic and autobiographic research designs. Two female second year medical students (27 y/o & 26 y/o) were immersed for 48 hours into a local hospice home, sleeping in a bed where others had died, to answer the question: “What is it like for ME to live in the Hospice Home for 48 hours and how does this contribute to my future as a practitioner?” Data were collected in the form of journal notes for pre-fieldwork, fieldwork, and post-fieldwork and included subjective and objective reporting of observations, experiences, and patient/family encounters. Analyses included journal review and thematic categorization and coding through content analysis. Results: Themes common to both students that factored in the research question and their prior stated interest areas of medical humanities and person-centered care at end of life were identified. Three themes were selected for this article: 1) Person-Centered Experiences, 2) Spectrum of Communication, and 3) Introspection: Attitudes and Values. The process of living in the hospice home for 48 hours revealed students’ attitudes about various disease processes, their personal experiences with death and dying, and their assumptions about how patients approach death. Conclusion: This Hospice Home Immersion project provided both an educational approach and learning environment that was effective in advancing medical students’ attitudes, skills, and knowledge as evidenced by their self-reported life altering learning about end of life and palliative care.
文摘Palliative care in the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region despite some progress made since the first hospice was opened in Zimbabwe in 1979, still lags far behind that of countries with developed economies, and relatively suffers from not being wholly included into mainstream public health service delivery in SSA. The situation is made worse due to relatively poor and pervasive socio-politico-economic factors and the challenge of the changing and increasing non-communicable disease epidemiology in SSA countries. This situation results in a tension between scarce resources and service needs/provision which prevails in a good number of SSA countries. In large part the situation where palliative care, end of life and the death trajectory converge in SSA countries currently portrays one of scarcity of resources and suffering for those ill SSA patients who need the services. This article is an overview of the current situation as pertains to palliative care services in the SSA region and some of the factors that contribute to or perpetuate the current state of palliative care delivery in SSA countries.
文摘Background: The introduction of care pathway plans for end-of-life cares such as the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) reveals a unique possibility for inter professional collaboration. Knowledge of symptom relief and how to meet the patients’ needs at the last stage of the palliative phase are essential for the nurses’ approach and care actions, but the documentation of such implementations is still rare and sometimes criticized. Aim: To explore and describe nurses’ experiences of using the LCP plan with patients hospitalized with heart failure at the end-of-life stage. An explorative design was applied, using qualitative content analysis of 20 interviews with nurses practicing the LCP plan in two district hospitals in Norway. Results: The nurses found the LCP plan as quality assurance for treatment and care in patients with heart failure in the last hours and days of life. The use of the LCP plan implied: 1) individualized adjustment, 2) symptom relief and 3) a holistic approach. Conclusion: Nurses experienced that using the LCP plan as a comprehensive action plan contributed in the decision making process and improved inter professional communication. Using the LCP plan should be seen as a tool to practice individualized and holistic nursing to patients at the end-of-life and their families, as well as a purposeful relief of symptoms associated with heart failure.
文摘Breathlessness, fatigue, and anxiety are distressing symptoms for patients with advanced lung cancer, however, they are not relieved by palliative RT and are often viewed as neglected areas of clinical practice. This paper aims to review def initions of, and explore patients' experiences of, breathlessness, fatigue, and anxiety. Further, it will outline existing approaches, both pharmacological and non-pharmacological, to treat them. Current treatments and perceptions of these symptoms will be discussed in the context of Hong Kong health care service. The review of literature also shows that breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety appears to have similar emotional origins. A contemporary approach of using a common pyschoeducational intervention to treat these symptoms together as a cluster in end of life care will be discussed.
文摘Background: involving patient in end of life decision is important to understand their wishes and preferences to help health care providers in improving the quality of dying and minimizing suffering. Aim: the aim of this review was to provide a detailed examination of the available literature related to patients’ involvement in decision making at end of life. Design: a systematic review following the PRISMA protocol was used, the review protocol was registered on PROSPERO: CRD42019128556. Data sources: we conducted a literature search in two electronic databases “CINAHL and Medline” during March-April 2019. The retrieved articles were included if they were: research reports or literature review;examined patient involvement in end-of-life discussions;full text publications, written in English and published from 2000-2019. Results: a total of (22) articles were included in the review;there was diversity in the purposes and design approach of the retrieved studies. The available literature explored patient’s involvement at end-of-life decision making through;describing current practices;understanding perspectives of end of life discussions;investigating the impact and identifying the barriers and facilitators of patients’ involvement in end of life discussions. Conclusion: involvement in end-of-life discussions improved the recognition of patients’ wishes, improved death experience, and decreased posttraumatic stress, depression, and anxiety among family members. Despite the documented benefits, some barriers against patient’s involvement in end-of-life decisions were recognized;lack of awareness;lack of education, training and experience;concerns about ethical and legal issues;and personal preferences of doctors or nurses were among the most commonly identified barriers.
文摘Background: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMS) are essential tools in clinical practice and research to assess patients’ needs from their unique perspectives. They allow the healthcare team to monitor patient status and concerns outside the clinical setting. However, the real innovation in this field is its digitization: electronic patient-reported outcome measures (ePROMs). Aims: This review aimed to get an overview of whether these new technologies are being used to aid palliative care teams in their daily struggle to provide comfort to their patients. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of articles retrieved from PubMed and Web of Science, up to November 2021. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. The search strategy yielded 242 records, of which 13 met the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. In addition, relevant information related to ePROMs was extracted from each study. Results: Outcomes were grouped into the quality of life assessment, symptom burden and simple assessments, and the decision to introduce Palliative Cures (PC). In 61.5% of cases, ePROMs positively impacted patients’ quality of life. Furthermore, in 46.15% of cases, ePROMs led Primary Care (PC) teams to make an ethical decision;the same relative value as in the circumstances did not define the direction in ethical terms. Conclusion: Remind professionals and patients that these tools exist and can be applied in many situations. If used correctly, they can provide patients with a better quality of life and more complete information for professionals.
文摘Background: Nurses providing end-of-life care play an important role in providing support to both the patient and his/her family during one of their most difficult time. Patients in this stage do not only require physical care but emotional support as well. Aside from being a care provider, nurses should be able to utilize their knowledge in therapeutic communication in order for the patients and his/her family members to verbalize their feelings and concerns. Objective: The purpose of this study is to identify whether nurses project sympathy or empathy while providing end-of-life care. It also aims to determine their lived experiences while proving care at this stage. Methodology: This study utilized the mixed convergent parallel design wherein both the quantitative research and qualitative research were employed. Result and Discussion: A factor analysis was conducted on 12 items with maximum likelihood extraction method and oblique (Promax) rotation method. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure verified the sampling adequacy for the analysis, KMO = 0.792 (“meritorious” according to Kaiser (1974)). Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity (χ2 (66) = 1007.294, p α = 0.881, sympathy α = 0.804, and cognitive empathy α = 0.728). Correlations among the factors were r = 0.315 for affective empathy and sympathy, r = 0.295 for sympathy and cognitive empathy, and r = 0.356 for affective empathy and cognitive empathy. Emergent key themes and subthemes are based on participants’ responses. The key themes are heart-touching moments of nurses in providing end-of-life care, challenges encountered by nurses in providing end-of-life care and adaptive strategies used by nurses to the challenges they face in providing end-of-life care. Conclusion: Most nurses during end-of-life care express affective empathy, followed by sympathy and lastly cognitive empathy. Nurses are encouraged to show and practice affective and cognitive empathy rather than using sympathy in caring patient and dealing with family member in the end-of-life situations. Despite the challenges that nurses faced, they are able to provide quality care by utilizing several adaptive strategies such as listening and understanding, showing empathy, providing holistic care, being spiritual and being aware of the role as caregiver.