Research Points to Palliative Care’s Underutilization Among Cancer Patients

Though access to palliative care (PC) has generally expanded in recent years, utilization of these services remains low among patients with various types of advanced cancers. Researchers from the American Cancer Society recently studied palliative care utilization trends among cancer patients with an aim to examine the impacts of earlier integration of these services. Researchers […]

Assessing Caregiver Burnout for Hospice, Palliative Patients

Given the significance of family caregivers in hospice care, providers can benefit from having tools to assess whether or not they are experiencing burnout. Burnout is a state of complete mental, physical and emotional exhaustion. Symptoms of burnout can include depression, compassion fatigue, stress and anxiety, and apathy, both in general life and towards work […]

Palliative Care Patients More Likely to Complete Advance Care Plans

Patients are more likely to create an advance care plan if they receive nurse-led palliative care services versus those who had standard care alone. Among patients who received palliative services, a recent three-month assessment found significant increases in the number who participated in end-of-life conversations and completed advance care plans, according to research published in […]

Societal Factors, Poor Coordination Impede Advance Care Planning Outcomes

Fragmentation and variation in advance care planning processes are undermining the effectiveness of those services, according to recent research. A range of societal factors, regulatory hurdles and a lack of care coordination between health care settings have erected barriers between patients and services that are aligned with their priorities. Prior studies have shown that advance […]