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- Axelsson, Bertil, et al.
(författare)
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Bostadsort avgör den palliativa vårdens resurser och kvalitet : Satsningar för att öka kompetensen behövs
- 2016
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Ingår i: Läkartidningen. - : Läkartidningen Förlag. - 0023-7205 .- 1652-7518. ; 113:47
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Access to palliative care is unequally distributed across Sweden and thus does not meet the needs. The holistic perspective of palliative care is sometimes contrasted with the usual medical focus on organ failure and disease. Palliative consultation teams provide specialist palliative care competencies for staff caring for patients in primary care, nursing homes and in hospitals. Efforts to increase knowledge and skills in palliative care is needed at undergraduate university level and through postgraduate and specialist training. Well organized cooperation between municipalities, county councils and primary care is crucial for patients in the final stages of life.
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| 5. |
- Fritzson, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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Association between parenteral fluids and symptoms in hospital end-of-life care : an observational study of 280 patients
- 2015
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Ingår i: BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care. - : BMJ. - 2045-435X .- 2045-4368. ; 5:2, s. 160-168
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether dying patients receiving parenteral fluids (PF) suffer from more or less symptoms than patients who do not receive PF. Today's evidence on how PF affects palliative patients' symptoms is very scarce. Nevertheless, 40% of the patients who die expectedly in Swedish hospitals receive PF during their last 24 h of life.METHODS: A historical cohort study of medical records was performed. Of the 530 patients who were reported to have died expectedly at hospital in Västerbotten county (Sweden) between 1 January 2011 and 30 June 2012, 140 cases who had received PF and 140 controls who had not received PF were identified by stratified randomisation and matched by age, sex and main disease. The groups were compared regarding documented presence of dyspnoea, respiratory secretions, anxiety, nausea and confusion during the last 24 h and the last week of life.RESULTS: The prevalence of documented dyspnoea in the PF groups was higher than in the non-PF groups (51% vs 22% last 24 h, p<0.0001; 70% vs 45% last 7 days, p<0.001). The proportions of patients suffering from dyspnoea increased with larger administered volume. Although our main hypothesis--that the prevalence of respiratory secretions would be higher in the PF group--was not confirmed, we found a tendency in that direction (63% vs 50% last week, p=0.072). No clinically significant differences in anxiety, nausea or confusion were found.CONCLUSIONS: There is an association between PF administration and increased frequency of documented dyspnoea for terminally ill patients in their last week of life.
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- Gray, Sarah, et al.
(författare)
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The prevalence of deranged C-reactive protein and albumin in patients with incurable cancer approaching death
- 2018
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 13:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction Amongst patients with incurable cancer approaching death, cachexia is common and associated with adverse outcomes. The term cachexia lacks a universally accepted definition and there is no consensus regarding which variables are to be measured. Furthermore, an elevated C-reactive protein is a common clinical challenge in this patient group. This study aims to add to the ongoing discussion regarding the definition of cancer cachexia and to study the role of C-reactive protein and s-albumin in this context.Material and methods A 1-year cohort, consisting of 155 cancer patients enrolled in a specialized palliative home care team in the city of Ostersund, Sweden, that were deceased during the year of 2015 was studied. Laboratory measures were studied within 0-30 and 31-60 days prior to death. C-reactive protein >10 mg/L and coinciding s-albumin <30 g/L was referred to as "laboratory cachexia". Also, the number of days from the first found "laboratory cachexia" until death was noted.Results The prevalence of "laboratory cachexia" was 85% 0-30 days prior to death compared to 66% 31-60 days prior to death (p<0.01). The majority of patients (75%) had an onset of "laboratory cachexia" within 0-120 days prior to death, with a median of 47 days. The median values for C-reactive protein and s-albumin within 0-30 days prior to death were 84mg/L and 23g/L respectively.Discussion Could markedly deranged values of C-reactive protein and s-albumin, such as found in this study, signal a relatively short remaining survival time in patients with incurable cancer and no clinical signs of ongoing infection? The role of "laboratory cachexia" in this context as well as the cut off values for the laboratory measures included may be further discussed.
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- Lind, Susanne, et al.
(författare)
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Quality indicators for palliative and end of life care : a review of Swedish policy documents
- 2015
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Ingår i: BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care. - : BMJ. - 2045-435X .- 2045-4368. ; 5:4, s. 413-419
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background All patients with palliative and end of life care needs should be guaranteed equal and safe treatment and care, regardless of their disease or site of care. The inclusion of quality indicators in national guidelines and other guiding documents supports quality assurance and improvement in provision of care. The aim of this paper was to review existing quality indicators in national Swedish policy documents relevant to palliative and end of life care. Methods We reviewed existing guidelines for diseases expected to require palliative care issued by the National Board of Health and Welfare, existing regional clinical practice guidelines and the annual report of the Swedish Register of Palliative Care (SRPC) up until 2010. Results We found 11 quality indicators pertinent to palliative and end of life care in the guidelines for cancer diseases and The care and nursing of the elderly'. The indicators included assessment and treatment of pain, communication with the patient and the family, documentation in the patient record and registration in the SRPC. In the national guidelines for cardiology, pulmonary diseases, stroke, diabetes and dementia, there were no indicators relevant for palliative or end of life care. Conclusions In the existing Swedish national guidelines for many different diseases, there is still a great need to define clinically relevant and feasible outcome measures of quality of palliative and end of life care.
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- Martinsson, Lisa, et al.
(författare)
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Improved data validity in the Swedish Register of Palliative Care
- 2017
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public library science. - 1932-6203. ; 12:10
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: The Swedish Register of Palliative Care (SRPC) is a national quality register that collects data about end-of-life care from healthcare providers that care for dying patients. Data are used for quality control and research. Data are mainly collected with an end-of-life questionnaire (ELQ), which is completed by healthcare staff after the death of a patient. A previous validity assessment of the ELQ showed insufficient validity in some items including symptom relief. The aim of this study was to examine the validity of the revised ELQ. Materials and methods: Data from 100 consecutive patients' medical records at two specialised palliative care units were used to complete new ELQs, which were then compared to the ELQ registrations from the SRPC for the same patients. The level of agreement was calculated for each ELQ item. To account for the possibility of the agreement occurring by chance, Cohen's kappa was calculated for suitable items. To examine the extent of registration mistakes when transferring the paper form to the web, the original paper versions of the ELQ filled out at the units were compared to data from the ELQs reported to the SRPC. Results: Level of agreement between ELQ registrations from the SRPC and the new ELQs based on the medical records varied between 0.55 and 1.00, where 24 items showed level of agreement above 0.80 and 9 items showed level of agreement below 0.80. Cohen's kappa with 95% confidence intervals was calculated for 24 items. The kappa values showed that two items had poor agreement, four fair agreement, 11 moderate agreement, five good agreement and two very good agreement. The level of agreement varied between 0.93 and 1.00 when comparing the ELQ registrations in the SRPC and the paper forms. Conclusion: The revised ELQ contains more items with high levels of agreement between registrations in the SRPC and notes in the patients' medical records when compared to the previous version. Validating issues around symptom assessment remains a challenge in our model of quality assessment.
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| 9. |
- Martinsson, Lisa, et al.
(författare)
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Increasing the number of patients receiving information about transition to end-of-life care : the effect of a half-day physician and nurse training
- 2016
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Ingår i: BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 2045-435X .- 2045-4368. ; 6:4, s. 452-458
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: Honest prognostication and information for patients are important parts of end-of-life care. This study examined whether an educational intervention could increase the proportion of patients who received information about the transition to end-of-life (ITEOL care).Method: Two municipalities (in charge of nursing homes) and two hospitals were randomised to receive an interactive half-day course about ITEOL for physicians and nurses. The proportion of patients who received ITEOL was measured with data from the Swedish Register of Palliative Care (SRPC). Patients were only included if they died an expected death and maintained their ability to express their will until days or hours before their death. Four hospitals and four municipalities were assigned controls, matched by hospital size, population and proportion of patients receiving ITEOL at baseline.Results: The proportion of patients in the intervention group who received ITEOL increased from 35.1% (during a 6-month period before the intervention) to 42% (during a 6-month period after the intervention). The proportion in the control group increased from 30.4% to 33.7%. The effect of the intervention was significant (p=0.005) in a multivariable model adjusted for time, age, gender and cause of death.Conclusion: More patients at end-of-life received ITEOL after an educative half-day intervention directed to physicians and nurses.
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| 10. |
- Martinsson, Lisa, et al.
(författare)
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Patients' perspectives on information from physicians during palliative chemotherapy : A qualitative study
- 2016
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Ingår i: Palliative & Supportive Care. - 1478-9515 .- 1478-9523. ; 14:5, s. 495-502
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVE:During the course of their disease, patients with cancer receiving palliative chemotherapy receive extensive amounts of information from physicians. The objective of our study was to describe patients' perspectives on the information they received from physicians during palliative chemotherapy with regard to their cancer diagnosis, treatments, prognosis, and future planning.METHOD:A total of 15 semistructured face-to-face interviews with patients who had incurable cancer were conducted, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed with qualitative content analysis.RESULTS:Three categories were defined during the analytical process: "having a chronic disease," "depending on chemotherapy," and "living with an unpredictable future."SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS:Our study demonstrated that patients undergoing palliative chemotherapy perceived that their disease was incurable and chronic, that they were dependent on chemotherapy, and that their future was uncertain. Compared with other studies, the patients in our study seemed to be more aware of their prognosis and the goals of care.
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