Articles from Asia Pacific Region:
End-of-life care among six human service areas flagged for reform
AUSTRALIA | Australian Ageing Agenda – 7 December 2016 – Australia tasked the Productivity Commission with investigating if the efficiency and effectiveness of the government’s human services could be improved by introducing greater competition and user choice. End-of-life care is one of the six priority areas which have been identified as best suited to deliver improved outcomes in a more competitive environment. The commission also said preferences could be better satisfied and outcomes improved if people nearing end of life were provided with more choice about the timing and setting of end-of-life care. https://goo.gl/cqi6AT
Specialist Publications
Embedding a palliative approach in nursing care delivery: An integrated knowledge synthesis
ADVANCES IN NURSING SCIENCE | Online – 6 December 2016 – A palliative approach involves adapting and integrating principles and values from palliative care into the care of persons who have lifelimiting conditions throughout their illness trajectories. The aim of this research was to determine what approaches to nursing care delivery support the integration of a palliative approach in hospital, residential, and home care settings. The findings substantiate the importance of embedding the values and tenets of a palliative approach into nursing care delivery, the roles that nurses have in working with interdisciplinary teams to integrate a palliative approach, and the need for practice supports to facilitate that embedding and integration. https://goo.gl/ALhGWp
How effective are volunteers at supporting people in their last year of life? A pragmatic randomised wait-list trial in palliative care (ELSA)
BMC MEDICINE | Online – 9 December 2016 – Clinicians can confidently refer to volunteer services at the end of life (EOL). More hours or increased frequency of contact with a volunteer has a statistically significant effect on the rate of decline of physical quality of life… Other measured outcomes of the volunteer provided support showed no statistically significant benefit over usual care, although a trend in favour of the intervention can be seen. This is the first trial of volunteer provided support in the last year of life and provides an emergent answer to questions of whether volunteer support should be used at the EOL to evaluate the effectiveness of such interventions. https://goo.gl/M8d0yH