{"title":"Clinical audit, quality improvement, and safety in palliative medicine","authors":"Irene J. Higginson, Mevhibe B. Hocaoglu","doi":"10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0127","url":null,"abstract":"Audit approaches and methods are now well advanced in palliative care, especially in clinical audit. This chapter discusses these approaches and methods, and addresses such questions as ‘Why perform clinical audit in palliative medicine?’ and ‘How do we assess the quality and safety of palliative care?’ It discusses the evolving terms of audit, quality assurance, quality improvement, safety, and governance, and how to apply clinical audit to palliative medicine. Audit requires resources, and so it must be sure to benefit patients and families, be kept as simple and efficient as possible, and have a strong educational component. There is also a need to develop and test methods of audit in a global healthcare context. If palliative approaches extend backwards to include patients earlier in care, rather than those just near to death, then the audit could become a means for clinical dialogue and education between specialties.","PeriodicalId":369448,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine","volume":"73 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129342391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social work in palliative care","authors":"T. Altilio, Bridget Sumser, Nina Laing","doi":"10.1093/med/9780199656097.003.0044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780199656097.003.0044","url":null,"abstract":"Palliative social work is an evolving specialty which continues to be enriched by practitioners globally. Social workers practise in diverse settings and have the opportunity to extend palliative care values and processes beyond hospitals and hospices to home care, nursing homes, prisons, and senior centres. This chapter discusses social work values and core principles as a foundation upon which to integrate palliative care, creating a rich opportunity to serve patients, families, teams, institutions, and communities. It begins with an introduction to the history of social work in palliative care and moves on to discuss the convergence and synergy of social work and palliative care, and the need to create models of care to meet global needs. Assessment and interventions are introduced with attention to confidentiality, culture, family meetings, and the roles and responsibilities within team work. Finally, a patient family narrative is presented.","PeriodicalId":369448,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine","volume":"118 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115703559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Orthopaedic surgery in the palliation of cancer","authors":"Mohamed A Yakoub, J. Healey","doi":"10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0080","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0080","url":null,"abstract":"Metastatic spread of cancer to bone is frequent and causes pain, disability, and functional limitation. Non-surgical treatments such as chemotherapy and hormone therapy are effective in early disease. Administration of bisphosphonates or osteoprotegerin inhibitors prevent new ‘bone events’, thereby avoiding pain, radiation, and surgery. Radiotherapy arrests disease and relieves pain in many cases. Surgery is needed when the bone is weak or fractured. It effectively relieves pain and preserves function by bypassing the deficient bone with site-specific reconstructive surgery. Surgery should be selected based on projections of patient survival. New tools to make these projections are now available (https://www.pathfx.org/). New targeted drug therapies appear to be changing metastatic bone disease into a more chronic condition. This will alter the management of local disease in many histological subtypes of metastatic cancers.","PeriodicalId":369448,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine","volume":"98 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124846921","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Involving children and families when someone important is dying or has died","authors":"E. Haraldsdottir, S. Paul","doi":"10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0097","url":null,"abstract":"The untimely death of a close family member is one of the most challenging events for families including children. This chapter discusses how a basic knowledge of child development and the ways that children understand illness and death can provide a template from which to inform families about how to help their children during this time and into bereavement. It addresses such topics as how children understand death at different ages, timing of discussions with children, decisions about the setting for end of life care and death in a family context, visiting the ill person, legacy leaving, and children’s participation in funerals and memorial services. By supporting families to anticipate common situations and questions, health and social care professionals can work with surviving adults to use their own (and the child’s) resources to provide thoughtful and meaningful care for children during this difficult time. This support encourages adults to include and involve children, using honest, child-centred communication during the illness period, at the end of life phase, at the time of death, and after death. Such communication is crucial for ongoing bereavement and family functioning.","PeriodicalId":369448,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125009597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Advance care planning","authors":"J. Rietjens, I. Korfage, J. Seymour","doi":"10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0031","url":null,"abstract":"Advance care planning (ACP) enables individuals to define goals and preferences for future medical treatment and care, to discuss these goals and preferences with family and healthcare providers, and to record and review these preferences if appropriate. ACP interventions have potentially beneficial outcomes for patients and healthcare systems, including increased completion of advance care directives, alignment of care to expressed preferences, better quality of communication and improved quality of life, reduction of unwanted hospital admissions, and increased use of palliative care. Aspects of ACP have been adopted in national and international healthcare policy. However, due to barriers to ACP, the occurrence in practice remains low. For instance, some people find ACP challenging: they may neither wish to ‘foresee’ the future nor to discuss the implications of their illness. Some may find it difficult to express their wishes or find the emphasis on autonomy to be countercultural. This chapter examines evidence about the effectiveness of ACP, describes the current practices, analyses its barriers and facilitators, and formulates best practices. It also explores the challenges of raising awareness of ACP among the general public, which is a necessary precursor to ACP. It draws on an international Delphi consensus study that was charged with developing a definition of ACP and recommendations for its application.","PeriodicalId":369448,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine","volume":"37 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116022663","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Autonomy and shared decision-making in a multicultural world","authors":"N. Cherny","doi":"10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0107","url":null,"abstract":"The delivery of palliative care is frequently a cross-cultural experience and, in many settings, it involves the care of patients from numerous different cultures and backgrounds. In the care of palliative care patients there are many challenging ethical issues around the issue of autonomy that may be influenced by the culture and traditions of either the patient or their family. Palliative care clinicians often find themselves challenged practically and ethically by issues arising around cross-cultural communication. Despite the input from philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, and communication experts, these issues continue to plague and often confuse individual clinicians as they confront challenging, and sometimes distressing, situations. This chapter aims to equip clinicians with a nuanced understanding of what a culture is and how it affects behaviours and expectations, a nuanced understanding of autonomy, and the role of paternalism when it may sometimes be appropriate and even justifiable to subvert patient autonomy.","PeriodicalId":369448,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine","volume":"58 2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116519006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Research in palliative care","authors":"M. Hjermstad, S. Kaasa","doi":"10.1093/med/9780199656097.003.0191","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780199656097.003.0191","url":null,"abstract":"High-quality research in palliative care is a prerequisite for improving the evidence base, and closing the gap between knowledge and practice to improve patient care. Palliative care research is demanding, as it implies a huge diversity of healthcare services at different levels of care, delivered by multiple professions to vastly different populations. The need for evidence-based, efficient, and cost-effective services is evident, given the rapidly ageing population who live longer with serious and complex illnesses. This calls for collaborative research efforts focusing on both patient-centred and disease-centred outcomes during the disease trajectories and care pathways. This chapter discusses a range of topics focusing on why and how to conduct research in palliative care, and provides information on how to start, proceed, and complete sound research projects, as effectively and targeted as possible. Topics include, among others, challenges in palliative care research, research governance and ethical considerations, controlled clinical trials, and trial planning (including designs, methodology, collaboration, randomization, protocol development, statistical considerations, study conduct, including defining and including patients, randomization, and publication).","PeriodicalId":369448,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121963061","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Management of the actively dying patient","authors":"J. Lacey, N. Cherny","doi":"10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0104","url":null,"abstract":"Few issues so encapsulate the palliative care as the skilled care of the dying patient and their family members. How patients die is a matter of supreme consequence in the human life cycle and for the surviving family. This chapter presents a multidisciplinary approach to highlighting challenges in identifying the terminal phase, approaches to help the clinician address the needs of patients and their family members, the management of common symptoms at the end of life including the management of refectory symptoms at the end of life. Tabulated information highlights some of the special issues including practical ways family members can participle in the care of their loved ones. The chapter concludes with some of the challenging issues related to hydration and nutrition, difficult deaths and staff coping and support.","PeriodicalId":369448,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine","volume":"64 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123502658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Danielle Ko, Hannah M E Evans-Barns, C. Blinderman
{"title":"Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment (including artificial nutrition and hydration)","authors":"Danielle Ko, Hannah M E Evans-Barns, C. Blinderman","doi":"10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0111","url":null,"abstract":"Life-sustaining treatment is any treatment that serves to prolong life without reversing the underlying medical condition. It includes cardiopulmonary resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, haemodialysis, left ventricular assist devices, antibiotics, and artificial nutrition and hydration. The appropriate use of life-sustaining treatment in seriously ill patients is a controversial topic that continues to generate intense debate among the public, as well as healthcare professionals, bioethicists, lawyers, governments, and religious institutions. This chapter offers a practical guide and sets out important questions clinicians ought to consider before making the decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment.","PeriodicalId":369448,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine","volume":"108 6","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132365392","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Medical and ethical considerations in palliative sedation at the end of life","authors":"E. Krakauer","doi":"10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0112","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198821328.003.0112","url":null,"abstract":"Among patients with an advanced terminal illness whose primary goal is comfort, severe suffering occurs occasionally that is refractory even to intensive palliative care with standard medicines and techniques. Controlled deep sedation, sometimes to unconsciousness, may be the only effective means of protecting patients from end of life suffering in these unusual situations. Thus, it is ethically imperative that deep palliative sedation be accessible for these rare situations. Ethical provision of deep palliative sedation requires that the main goal of care agreed upon with the patient or the patient’s surrogate be comfort, that there be agreement to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatments, that informed consent be obtained from the patient or surrogate, that all staff members actively involved in caring for the patient be informed in advance of the plan, that the clinical intention be demonstrated by using the minimum doses of medicine needed to achieve an adequate degree of comfort, and that dose titration be based on close observation of the patient. Deep palliative sedation may be used to assure comfort during terminal discontinuation of mechanical ventilation. Deep palliative sedation is ethically fundamentally different from euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide and should not be confused with these practices.","PeriodicalId":369448,"journal":{"name":"Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134322789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}