Around the world, different models of paediatric palliative care have responded to the unique needs of children with life shortening conditions. However, research confirming their utility and impact is still lacking. This study compared patient-related outcomes and healthcare expenditures between those who received home-based paediatric palliative care and standard care. The quality of life and caregiver burden for patients receiving home-based paediatric palliative care were also tracked over the first year of enrolment to evaluate the service’s longitudinal impact.
Open Access Article
When receiving palliative care, patients and their families experience altered life situations in which they must negotiate challenges in daily life, increased care and new roles. With limited time, they also experience emotional changes that relate to their uncertain future. Transitions experienced in such situations are often studied by focusing on individual aspects, which are synthesized in the following study. The aim was to conduct a qualitative meta-synthesis to explore the experiences patients and their families gain during transitions in palliative care circumstances.
Open Access Article
Asking patients with palliative care needs about their end-of-life (EoL) preferences is widely acknowledged as an important aspect of EoL care. However, the issue of how to ask patients these questions has not been fully explored. Most prior studies in this area do not differentiate between patients' pragmatic preferences and ideal preferences, and between preferences concerning place of care (PoC) and place of death (PoD). To read the full article, log in using your SSOTP NHS OpenAthens details. SSSFT - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
Implications for practice and research:
> Unmet learning needs exist among staff supporting people with intellectual disabilities at end of life and in bereavement, which should be addressed within care settings.
> There is evidence that partnership working between intellectual disability and palliative care services can enable the end-of-life care needs of people with intellectual disabilities to be more effectively assessed and addressed.
> Further studies are required to explore staff experiences in supporting people with intellectual disabilities in these sensitive issues.
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The aim of this study was to determine if community-based palliative care provided to people dying from non-cancer conditions was associated with reduced hospital costs in the last year of life and how this compared with people dying from cancer.
Open Access Article
The Auditing Care at the End of Life (ACE) instrument contains 27 questions captured across 6 domains, which are indicative of quality end-of-life care for nursing home residents.
Open Access Article
This study explored the lived experiences of clinical nurse specialists who can prescribe independently in their role of providing support to patients with palliative care needs within the community. Part 1 of this study examined how the study was carried out; this second part explores the findings. The nurses reported that being able to prescribe enabled them to provide seamless, holistic care, which gave patients faster access to medicines, especially at weekends when their GP was unavailable.
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Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic, progressive neurological disorder with many intractable consequences for patients and their family caregivers. Little is known about the possibilities that palliative care could offer to patients and their proxies. Guidelines strongly recommend palliative care to improve the quality of life and – if needed – the quality of dying. However, providing palliative care to persons with PD involves specific challenges.
Open Access Article