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Biomedical subjects

F Sheldon

Publications and source records attributed to F Sheldon.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

Differences in understanding of specialist palliative care amongst service providers and commissioners in South London.

This paper describes a study that sought to identify service providers' and commissioners' understanding of specialist palliative care within the context of changing service provision in one area of South London. Using a formative evaluation framework, we examined the views of 44 providers and commissioners from statutory and voluntary health and social care services about their understanding of specialist palliative care services and, in particular, the remit of current service provision delivered by a Marie Curie Centre. Face-to-face audiotaped semi-structured interviews were conducted. A qualitative thematic analysis highlighted a number of issues including a lack of consensus about definitions of palliative care, ambivalence about referral procedures, and a lack of role clarity between specialist and generalist palliative care providers. The study took place within the real world context of changing services and economic pressures. This raises methodological issues about how services are evaluated and what terminology is used to describe end-of-life care. The study findings confirm that confusion about terminology and referral criteria remain major issues for clinical workers and organizations seeking to access services.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2001

Receiving a diagnosis of lung cancer: patients' interpretations, perceptions and perspectives.

Lung cancer has a higher incidence than any other type of cancer and more than 80% of sufferers die within a year of diagnosis. An important aspect of caring for cancer patients is the breaking of bad news, something that most doctors admit to having difficulty with. Only a few publications on this issue adopt the patients' perspective. This study aimed to document patients' views on delivery of lung cancer diagnoses, their attitudes to methods used and ideas for improvement. Patients were selected from medical, surgical and general practitioner clinics to provide insight into patients' perceptions of care in different environments. Those who gave informed consent completed a taped semi-structured interview. Transcripts were analysed qualitatively using a phenomenological approach. Recruitment was stopped when saturation was reached: no new themes were being identified. A summary of results was sent to patients, whenever possible, for their comment. An independent researcher coded four transcripts to establish the degree of inter-rater reliability. Thirteen patients were recruited. There were five key areas: communication (including the use of words such as 'tumour' and 'growth'), family/community issues, reaction to diagnosis, views on treatment and prognosis (all of which were very variable), and suggested improvements (e.g. a clearer explanation of the experience of bronchoscopy in the patient information leaflet, PIL). Inter-rater reliability was good. The PIL is being revised. Factors including family situation and personal experience of illness vary greatly and yet they influence patients' reactions to receiving a diagnosis of lung cancer, their interpretation of this and their attitudes to the illness and treatment. These findings underline the need to continue to develop lung cancer services that can provide quality care tailored to each patient.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

Palliative care: a suitable setting for undergraduate interprofessional education.

Effective delivery of high-quality palliative care requires effective interprofessional teamworking by skilled health and social care professionals. Palliative care is therefore highly suitable for sowing the seeds of interprofessional teamworking in early professional education. This paper describes experiences of running undergraduate interprofessional workshops in palliative care for medical, nursing, social work, physiotherapy and occupational therapy students. These workshops are unusual in three respects: first, the involvement of family carers mean that these learning experiences are rooted in clinical reality; secondly, there is no attempt to 'tidy up' the story for the students; thirdly, unlike many undergraduate interprofessional programmes, these workshops have been sustained over several years. Evaluation of these workshops demonstrate that students value and enjoy the opportunity to work together; they find the experience moving, informative and interesting. Feedback from carers showed that they appreciated the opportunity to present their real-life experiences to students. Our evidence suggests that palliative care is a suitable subject for undergraduate interprofessional education.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1996

The life so short, the craft so hard to learn: a model for post-basic education in palliative care.

This paper seeks to review the available educational palliative care experiences at post-basic level and explores different possibilities for current and future programmes. Central to this review is the exploration of the values and beliefs that underpin educational practice, and the relationship of these to palliative care practice. There are gaps in espoused theory, and theory in the practice of both is of critical importance. We locate our own values and beliefs in the new paradigm of human inquiry and propose that this paradigm and its methodologies have a considerable contribution to make to the development of both palliative care education and practice.

Curriculum↗
PubMed1983

Grip strength and torquometry in the assessment of hand function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Hand function was studied in 33 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Grip strength and torquometry, two distinct quantitative indices of grip, each correlated well (p less than 0.001) with the score obtained in an occupational therapy assessment of hand function both in the presence of active synovitis and chronic joint deformity. Grip strength correlated better with certain hand skills and torquometry with others, the relative relationships often being predictable from the type of grip entailed.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

Supporting the supporters: working with the relatives of patients with dementia.

For the elderly with dementia their families remain the most frequent supporters, despite recent changes in the style of family life. The influence on the care they provide of such factors as acceptance of diagnosis, previous relationships, the patient's deteriorating condition, toleration of risk and acceptance of alternative care is discussed. Appropriate support for families will enable them to care more effectively and with less damage to themselves.

Adaptation, Psychological↗