2019; Volume 20, No 2, February
Media Watch
An annotated list of recent articles about palliative care in the news media and the literature
Media Watch is intended as an advocacy, education, and research tool. The weekly report, published by Barry R. Ashpole, a Canadian communications consultant and educator, monitors the literature and the lay press on issues specific to the quality of end-of-life care. It is international in scope and distribution. Each month, this section of the IAHPC Newsletter publishes selected abstracts or summaries of articles or reports of special interest from recent issues of Media Watch.
Talking Points
Guidance for family physicians in broaching the difficult-to-raise topic of advance care planning with patients. / Health care providers should assess family caregivers’ well-being during the older adult’s visit, posits a nursing professor. / Evaluating the impact of the end-of-life educational series by the Young Survival Coalition, for young women with breast cancer.
Article Abstracts
Perceptions of palliative care in a lower middle-income Muslim country: A qualitative study of health care professionals, bereaved families and communities
Palliative Medicine | Online – 17 December 2018 – The compatibility of Islamic theology with the principles of palliative care (PC) has been established at a conceptual level. This study describes its compatibility in a particular Muslim context, in which the perceptions of PC have been constructed through an amalgamation of Islamic theology and the fragility of life in a low-resource setting. The authors demonstrate how faith is combined with certain cultural-specific traits to construct a response to some of the principles of PC. The process of introducing PC at a national level in Mauritania is underway, and this research informs the future integration of PC within the health services. Advocacy is in tune with the cultural paradigm and is better able to unite policy makers, families, patients, religious leaders and health professionals to agree on the importance and need of PC for Mauritania.
DOI: 10.1177/0269216318816275
Facilitating successful implementation of a person-centred intervention to support family carers within palliative care: A qualitative study of the Carer Support Needs Assessment Tool (CSNAT) intervention
BMC Palliative Care | Online – 20 December 2018 – This study has distinguished key aspects of facilitation of evidence-based practice in relation to carer assessment and support. Essential characteristics of the facilitator role for successful implementation are identified in terms of “leverage” within the implementation team, style and skills in communication and providing support to peers. It has also evidenced the interacting contextual factors that help and hinder the facilitation process, including the specific challenges of facilitating implementation of carer support interventions as opposed to patient interventions... [T]hese findings broaden the knowledge base for training that tends to focus on training of individuals, extending it to understandings of organisational structures and processes necessary for its successful implementation in practice. In terms of translation of research into practice, these findings on facilitation and contextual factors have been taken forward and used to inform components of The CSNAT Approach Training and Implementation Toolkit. This toolkit will enable training of individual practitioners, and ensure that organisations wishing to implement a comprehensive person-centred approach to assessment and support for carers have access to structured implementation guidance.
DOI: 10.1186/s12904-018-0382-5
Assessing quality of care for the dying from the bereaved relatives’ perspective: Using pre-testing survey methods across seven countries to develop an international outcome measure
Palliative Medicine | Online – 10 January 2019 – Overall, the authors have developed a common, core international questionnaire (‘i-CODE’) with key questions pertaining to the quality of care for those who are dying. In addition, they have culturally adapted versions, combining the views of patient and public involvement (PPI) representatives, and, with the exception of Brazil, bereaved relatives’ views for each language. On an international basis, the i-CODE questionnaire appears to have good face and content validity. As individual questions appeared to be culturally relevant across all seven participating countries, the next part of the research process – a cross-sectional survey with bereaved relatives – is feasible and a transnational comparison of results is possible. Further assessment of the psychometric properties of the CODETM questionnaire will be facilitated during the next steps of this research.
DOI: 10.1177/0269216318818299
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