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Biomedical subjects

James Hallenbeck

Publications and source records attributed to James Hallenbeck.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Faculty development in end-of-life care: evaluation of a national train-the-trainer program.

To address serious deficiencies in physician training in end-of-life care, the authors developed and disseminated a faculty development curriculum. The overall goals of this curriculum were to enhance physician competence in end-of-life care, foster a commitment to improving care for the dying, and improve teaching related to end-of-life care. The authors provide descriptions of the curriculum and the train-the-trainer programs (2000-2002) that successfully prepared 17 medical faculty as in-house end-of-life care faculty developers at institutions nationwide. They also report on a study of the effects of the 16-hour, end-of-life care curriculum delivered by trained facilitators to 62 faculty and residents at their home sites. Program evaluation showed that the home-site seminars enhanced the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of participating faculty and residents. When project evaluation concluded in 2003, trained facilitators had disseminated the 16-hour curriculum as well as modified versions of the curriculum to approximately 3,400 medical teachers. An adapted version of the curriculum is available on the Internet for use in health professions education. The importance of this type of faculty development effort was confirmed by the positive impact of the 16-hour curriculum on participants' knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to end-of-life care, the high ratings of the program's educational and clinical relevance, and the finding that, on average, more than 50% of the material was new to them.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2005

Palliative care in the final days of life: "they were expecting it at any time".

Providing care to actively dying patients presents unique challenges for the clinician. Patients in their final days require careful symptom management. Families need support and coaching as death approaches. Care does not end with the death of the patient but continues through death pronouncement, family notification of the death, discussion of autopsy, and immediate bereavement support. Skills in these and related areas are discussed in the context of one man's death, as illuminated by comments made after death by his daughter and his physician. This case also highlights the often differing perspectives of families and clinicians as they work to deal with a patient's death. A goal of mastering the palliative skills necessary to competently care for an actively dying patient is to enable a patient to die peacefully and relatively free of discomfort. Achieving such competency should also help to relieve clinician stress attendant to caring for dying patients.

Humans↗
PubMed2005

The development and initial validation of the Terminally Ill Grief or Depression Scale (TIGDS).

Patients often experience 'preparatory-grief' as they cope with the dying process. Some may be depressed. The Terminally Ill Grief or Depression Scale (TIGDS), comprising grief and depression sub-scales, is a new self-report measure designed to differentiate between preparatory-grief and depression in adult inpatients. The initial 100-item inventory was assembled based on literature review, interviews with clinicians and dying patients and then shortened to 42 items based on consensus expert opinion. Validity and reliability were tested in a sample of 55 terminally ill adults. The consensus clinical opinion was used as the gold standard to differentiate between preparatory grief and depression. The intra-class correlation coefficient was high (it was calculated to estimate the test-retest reliability for the 47 patients who had completed the TIGDS twice--retest was administered 2 to 7 days after the initial test), ranging from 0.86 (grief) to 0.97 (depression). The validity of TIGDS was assessed using a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, comparing the first test with the clinical criterion. The first and only variable and cut-point was the depression score (chi-square = 18.4, p < 0.001, cut point = 3). The sensitivity of the TIGDS was 0.727 and specificity was 0.886 for the depression = 3 cutoff score. The construct validity of the TIGDS was tested by comparing with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The TIGDS depression subscale showed strong convergent validity and the TIGDS grief subscale showed strong discriminant validity with the HADS total score.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Identifying and managing preparatory grief and depression at the end of life.

Grief and depression present similarly in patients who are dying. Conventional symptoms (e.g., frequent crying, weight loss, thoughts of death) used to assess for depression in these patients may be imprecise because these symptoms are also present in preparatory grief and as a part of the normal dying process. Preparatory grief is experienced by virtually all patients who are dying and can be facilitated with psychosocial support and counseling. Ongoing pharmacotherapy is generally not beneficial and may even be harmful to patients who are grieving. Evidence of disturbed self-esteem, hopelessness, an active desire to die and ruminative thoughts about death and suicide are indicative of depression in patients who are dying. Physicians should have a low threshold for treating depression in patients nearing the end of life because depression is associated with tremendous suffering and poor quality of life.

Aged↗
PubMed2002

Tube feed or not tube feed?

Tube feeding should always be considered relative to patient goals. Physicians should be prepared to discuss tube feeding as an option bearing in mind what evidence (or lack thereof) exists that tube feeding will help reach such goals.

Decision Making↗
PubMedDate not supplied

High context illness and dying in a low context medical world.

This article provides an introduction to the field of intercultural communication. Miscommunication among patients, families, and clinicians often results when participants are contextually "out-of-synch. " High context communication embeds more information in the contexts within which people communicate and is less dependent on language. Very sick and dying patients often use high context communication strategies. Low context communication stresses explicit verbal communication and is commonly used by clinicians. When clinicians use low context forms of communication with patients using high context styles, misunderstandings frequently arise. Suggestions are given for avoiding miscommunication and enhancing mutual understanding.

Attitude to Death↗