The Department of Health have published a response to an independent review on choice in end of life care.
It details the six commitments that the government has made to the public to end variation in end of life care across the health system by 2020
The author reflects on the results of the National Survey off Bereaved People. Topics covered include the percentage of respondents who rated the overall quality of end-of-life care for their relative as outstanding, the lower percentage of respondents who evaluated hospital case as outstanding and the reasons for the stagnation in the survey results. Also mentioned is the commitment to promote high-quality care for adults at the end of their life. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Children’s hospices are a key provider of palliative care for children and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions. However, despite recent policy attention to the provision of paediatric palliative care, little is known about the role of children’s hospice staff and the factors that may impact on their wellbeing at work. This study explored the rewards and challenges of working in a children’s hospice with an aim to identify staff support and development needs.
Open Access Article
Hospice at home (HAH) services aim to enable patients to be cared for and die in their place of choice, if that is at home, and to achieve a ‘good death’. There is a considerable range of HAH services operating in England. The published evidence focuses on evaluations of individual services which vary considerably, and there is a lack of consistency in terms of the outcome measures reported. The evidence, therefore, does not provide generalisable information, so the question ‘What are the features of hospice at home service models that work, for whom, and under what circumstances?’ remains unanswered. The study aims to answer this question.
Open Access Article
To explore palliative care nurses’ attitudes, roles and concrete experience with regard to addressing sexual issues in their daily practice.. To read the full article, log in using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens details. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
Aim:
To investigate the association between advance care planning (ACP) and home death in patients with advanced cancer. To read the full article, log in using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens details.
Almost two thirds (65%) of nurses do not have sufficient time to provide high quality care for patients who are dying, an exclusive survey conducted jointly by Nursing Standard and Marie Curie has found.
To read the full article, log in using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens details. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the users’ and providers’ perspectives on music therapy in palliative care within one research article.
Open Access Article
Dignity therapy is becoming established in adult settings, with research supporting its effectiveness. This article aims to summarise and synthesise the research that has explored dignity therapy and related meaning-making interventions in palliative care with young people. To read the full article, log in using your SSOTP (legacy account) NHS OpenAthens details. MPFT - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
Macmillan Cancer Support’s census shows:
The number of new cases per specialist cancer nurse is dramatically different across the country;
A greater proportion of specialist cancer nurses being paid in lower pay bands than in 2014;
Higher vacancy rates in specialist cancer nurse and cancer support worker roles than the UK average for health and social work
The proportion of specialist cancer nurses aged over 50 has increased;
Undergraduate nursing students encounter patients at the end of life during their clinical training. They need to confront dying and death under supportive circumstances in order to be prepared for similar situations in their future career.
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.
The nutritional needs of patients receiving palliative care should be routinely assessed, taking into account disease trajectory and nutrition-related symptoms. The social and emotional aspects of eating and drinking should also be acknowledged; as should the distress that weight loss and anorexia engenders in patients and their families. Practical strategies to optimise nutritional intake are discussed. Open and sensitive communication of patients’ needs and wishes is essential, especially when discussing complementary nutrition approaches. A holistic, multidisciplinary approach is key to meeting nutritional needs, and the goals of nutritional intervention should be regularly reviewed in the light of disease progression.
To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Dementia is a chronic, progressive disease that is now much more widely recognised and treated. Patients with dementia may require palliative care when they reach the end stage of their illness, or they may have mild–moderate cognitive symptoms comorbid with a life-limiting illness. The variety of presentations necessitates a highly individual approach to care planning, and patients should be encouraged to set their own goals and contribute to advanced care planning where possible. Assessment and management of distressing symptoms at the end of life can be greatly helped by a detailed knowledge of the individuals’ prior wishes, interdisciplinary communication and recognition of changes in presentation that may result from new symptoms, for example, onset of pain, nutritional deficits and infection.. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
The materials are a response to a survey by Age UK and the Malnutrition Task Force that shows conversations about death are taboo for many people.
To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Timely identifying people with intellectual disabilities in need of palliative care is important. Therefore, we developed PALLI: a screening tool for deteriorating health, indicative of a limited life expectancy. Here, we aimed to describe development of PALLI and to explore its applicability.. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Gail Wilson has been instrumental in pioneering a compassionate communities initiative that uses local networks of informal carers to enable people to die in their own homes, if that is where they want to be. The initiative involves formal services working with the informal networks to deliver care to suitable patients. After a pilot in Cornwall it will be introduced in Devon. To read the full article, log in using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens details.
The service was created as a partnership between the palliative care team and older people’s mental health services, to make sure appropriate support is provided. It’s the only one of its kind in the North West.
Opioid and sedative use are common ‘active’ practices in the provision of mainstream palliative care services, and are typically distinguished from euthanasia on the basis that they do not shorten survival time. Even supposing that they did, it is often argued that they are justified and distinguished from euthanasia via appeal to Aquinas’ Doctrine of Double Effect. In this essay, I will appraise the empirical evidence regarding opioid/sedative use and survival time, and argue for a position of agnosticism. I will then argue that the Doctrine of Double Effect is a useful ethical tool but is ultimately not a sound ethical principle, and even if it were, it is unclear whether palliative opioid/sedative use satisfy its four criteria. Although this essay does not establish any definitive proofs, it aims to provide reasons to doubt—and therefore weaken—the often-claimed ethical distinction between euthanasia and palliative opioid/sedative use. . To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
What nurses in their thousands told our third annual Nursing Standard-Marie Curie poll on end of life care provision
Almost two thirds (65%) of nurses say staffing shortages are the main barrier to providing good care to dying patients, an exclusive survey by Nursing Standard and Marie Curie reveals. To read the full article, log in using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens details.
Young people who have learning disabilities commonly have many complex and severe life-limiting conditions that result in premature death. Too often neither they nor their family and friends are prepared for end of life situations. End of life care planning is helpful in eliciting and honouring the young person’s wishes, as far as possible. However, it can be challenging due to communication difficulties and limited understanding of the meaning of death and dying. To read the full article, log in using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens details.