The meaning of palliative care for the professional caregiver.
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Caregivers↗
Biomedical subjects
Martha Twaddle
Publications and source records attributed to Martha Twaddle.
Palliative care.
Palliative care represents a part of a whole philosophy and approach to patient care--it should not be an isolated service at the end of life. Whole person care does not have to be limited to those imminently dying. The Palliative Care Center and Hospice of the North Shore created a Palliative Care Consultation (PCC) service in 1999 to assist those patients needing help with pain and symptoms before they qualify for hospice care.
Aged↗
Evidence of improved knowledge and skills after an elective rotation in a hospice and palliative care program for internal medicine residents.
There is compelling evidence that residents training in primary care need education in palliative care. Evidence for effective curricula is needed. The objective of this study was to test whether a clinical elective improves measures of knowledge and skill. Residents from three categorical training programs in internal medicine were recruited to an elective including clinical experiences in an acute hospital palliative care consultation service, on an acute hospice and palliative care unit, and in-home hospice care. A 25-question pre- and post-test and a videotaped interview with a standardized patient were used to assess communication skills and measure outcomes. Residents demonstrated a 10 percent improvement in knowledge after the four-week elective (p < 0.05). All residents demonstrated basic competency in communication skills at the end of the rotation. These results indicate that clinical rotation shows promise as an educational intervention to improve palliative care knowledge and skills in primary care residents. An important limitation of the study is that it is an elective; further studies with a required rotation and/or a control group are needed to confirm the findings.
Adult↗