Rural pharmacists are pivotal to home-based palliative care

Pharmacists are being recognised for their vital role in supporting home-based rural palliative care patients, as new research shows that they not only enable patients to choose to stay at home, but also provide significant relief, comfort, and peace of mind for patients, carers, and family members.

Debriefing After Critical Events Combines Review, Reflection

The PICU bereavement/wellness committee at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago developed a tailored debriefing process to allow time for reflection and communication after critical patient events. The process was designed as a hot debriefing to be completed during the current shift, with all staff members who were involved in the event invited to participate.

Machine Learning-Triggered Reminders Improve End-of-Life Care for Patients with Cancer

Electronic nudges delivered to health care clinicians based on a machine learning algorithm that predicts mortality risk quadrupled rates of conversations with patients about their end-of-life care preferences, according to the long-term results of a randomized clinical trial published by Penn Medicine investigators in JAMA Oncology today.

Study Documents Racial Differences In U.S. Hospice Use And End-Of-Life Care Preferences

In a new medical records analysis of racial disparities in end-of-life care, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine and three collaborating institutions report that Black patients voluntarily seek substantially more intensive treatment, such as mechanical ventilation, gastronomy tube insertion, hemodialysis, CPR and multiple emergency room visits in the last six months of life, while white patients more often choose hospice services.