RESUMEN
Importance: Despite the evidence for early palliative care improving outcomes, it has not been widely implemented in part due to palliative care workforce limitations. Objective: To evaluate a stepped-care model to deliver less resource-intensive and more patient-centered palliative care for patients with advanced cancer. Design, Setting, and Participants: Randomized, nonblinded, noninferiority trial of stepped vs early palliative care conducted between February 12, 2018, and December 15, 2022, at 3 academic medical centers in Boston, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Durham, North Carolina, among 507 patients who had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer within the past 12 weeks. Intervention: Step 1 of the intervention was an initial palliative care visit within 4 weeks of enrollment and subsequent visits only at the time of a change in cancer treatment or after a hospitalization. During step 1, patients completed a measure of quality of life (QOL; Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung [FACT-L]; range, 0-136, with higher scores indicating better QOL) every 6 weeks, and those with a 10-point or greater decrease from baseline were stepped up to meet with the palliative care clinician every 4 weeks (intervention step 2). Patients assigned to early palliative care had palliative care visits every 4 weeks after enrollment. Main Outcomes and Measures: Noninferiority (margin = -4.5) of the effect of stepped vs early palliative care on patient-reported QOL on the FACT-L at week 24. Results: The sample (n = 507) mostly included patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (78.3%; mean age, 66.5 years; 51.4% female; 84.6% White). The mean number of palliative care visits by week 24 was 2.4 for stepped palliative care and 4.7 for early palliative care (adjusted mean difference, -2.3; P < .001). FACT-L scores at week 24 for the stepped palliative care group were noninferior to scores among those receiving early palliative care (adjusted FACT-L mean score, 100.6 vs 97.8, respectively; difference, 2.9; lower 1-sided 95% confidence limit, -0.1; P < .001 for noninferiority). Although the rate of end-of-life care communication was also noninferior between groups, noninferiority was not demonstrated for days in hospice (adjusted mean, 19.5 with stepped palliative care vs 34.6 with early palliative care; P = .91). Conclusions and Relevance: A stepped-care model, with palliative care visits occurring only at key points in patients' cancer trajectories and using a decrement in QOL to trigger more intensive palliative care exposure, resulted in fewer palliative care visits without diminishing the benefits for patients' QOL. While stepped palliative care was associated with fewer days in hospice, it is a more scalable way to deliver early palliative care to enhance patient-reported outcomes. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03337399.
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Neoplasias Pulmonares , Cuidados Paliativos , Anciano , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Neoplasias Pulmonares/diagnóstico , Neoplasias Pulmonares/psicología , Neoplasias Pulmonares/terapia , Cuidados Paliativos/métodos , Atención Dirigida al Paciente , Calidad de Vida , Cuidado Terminal/métodos , Estadificación de NeoplasiasRESUMEN
ABSTRACT: Delivering oncologic care via telemedicine has presented a unique set of benefits and challenges. Discussions of sensitive topics between patients and providers can be difficult on a virtual platform. Although it was imperative to utilize telemedicine to keep cancer patients safe during the height of the pandemic, its continued use in the postvaccination era has provided important conveniences to both providers and patients. In the case of breaking bad news and end-of-life discussions, however, in-person care has remained the overwhelming preference of both groups. If face-to-face consultation is not possible or feasible in these situations, virtual visits are a viable option to connect oncologists with their patients.
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Neoplasias , Telemedicina , Humanos , Cuidados Paliativos , Oncología Médica , Pandemias , Neoplasias/terapiaRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: Communication about patients' values, goals, and prognosis in serious illness (serious illness communication) is a cornerstone of person-centered care yet difficult to implement in practice. As part of Serious Illness Care Program implementation in five health systems, we studied the clinical culture-related factors that supported or impeded improvement in serious illness conversations. METHODS: Qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews of clinical leaders, implementation teams, and frontline champions. RESULTS: We completed 30 interviews across palliative care, oncology, primary care, and hospital medicine. Participants identified four culture-related domains that influenced serious illness communication improvement: (1) clinical paradigms; (2) interprofessional empowerment; (3) perceived conversation impact; (4) practice norms. Changes in clinicians' beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors in these domains supported values and goals conversations, including: shifting paradigms about serious illness communication from 'end-of-life planning' to 'knowing and honoring what matters most to patients;' improvements in psychological safety that empowered advanced practice clinicians, nurses and social workers to take expanded roles; experiencing benefits of earlier values and goals conversations; shifting from avoidant norms to integration norms in which earlier serious illness discussions became part of routine processes. Culture-related inhibitors included: beliefs that conversations are about dying or withdrawing care; attitudes that serious illness communication is the physician's job; discomfort managing emotions; lack of reliable processes. CONCLUSIONS: Aspects of clinical culture, such as paradigms about serious illness communication and inter-professional empowerment, are linked to successful adoption of serious illness communication. Further research is warranted to identify effective strategies to enhance clinical culture and drive clinician practice change.
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Comunicación , Enfermería de Cuidados Paliativos al Final de la Vida , Humanos , Investigación Cualitativa , Muerte , EmocionesRESUMEN
CONTEXT: Palliative care (PC) clinicians faced many challenges delivering outpatient care during the coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. OBJECTIVES: We described trends for in-person and video visit PC delivery challenges before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. METHODS: We performed a secondary data analysis of patient characteristics and PC clinician surveys from a multisite randomized controlled trial at 20 academic cancer centers. Patients newly diagnosed with advanced lung cancer (N = 653) were randomly assigned to receive either early in-person or telehealth PC and had at least monthly PC clinician visits. PC clinicians completed surveys documenting PC delivery challenges after each encounter. We categorized patients into 3 subgroups according to their PC visit dates relative to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.-pre-COVID-19 (all visits before March 1, 2020), pre/post-COVID-19 (≥1 visit before and after March 1, 2020), and post-COVID-19 (all visits after March 1, 2020). We performed Pearson's chi-squared, Fisher's exact, and Kruskal-Wallis tests to examine associations. RESULTS: We analyzed 2329 surveys for video visits and 2176 surveys for in-person visits. For video visits, the pre-COVID-19 subgroup (25.8% [46/178]) had the most technical difficulties followed by the pre/post-COVID-19 subgroup (17.2% [307/1784]) and then the post-COVID-19 subgroup (11.4% [42/367]) (P = 0.0001). For in-person visits, challenges related to absent patients' family members occurred most often in the post-COVID-19 subgroup (6.2% [16/259]) followed by the pre/post-COVID-19 subgroup (3.6% [50/1374]) and then the pre-COVID-19 subgroup (2.2% [12/543]) (P = 0.02). CONCLUSION: Technical difficulties related to PC video visits improved, whereas in-person visit challenges related to absent patients' family members worsened during the pandemic.
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COVID-19 , Telemedicina , Humanos , Pandemias , Cuidados Paliativos , Atención AmbulatoriaRESUMEN
PURPOSE: Caregivers of patients with malignant gliomas are at risk for psychological distress. However, factors associated with distress in this population have not been well described. We conducted a prospective study evaluating psychological distress in patients with malignant gliomas and their caregivers and exploring factors associated with caregiver distress. METHODS: We enrolled patients with newly diagnosed malignant gliomas (N = 77) and their caregivers (N = 61). At baseline and 3, 6, and 9 months after diagnosis, we administered the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale to assess psychological distress and the Caregiver Reaction Assessment to evaluate caregiver burden. We performed multivariable regression analyses to investigate caregiver-related, patient-related, and tumor-related factors associated with caregivers' distress. RESULTS: At baseline, 48.3% (29/60) and 26.2% (16/61) of caregivers reported clinically significant anxiety and depression symptoms, respectively. Anxiety and depression symptoms persisted over time. Greater caregiver depression was associated with male gender (B = 1.48, 95% CI 0.16-2.81, p = 0.03), higher caregiver burden (B = 0.08, 95% CI 0.01-0.15, p = 0.02), caregiver anxiety (B = 0.53, 95% CI 0.38-0.68, p < 0.0001), patient depression (B = 0.34, 95% CI 0.13-0.55, p = 0.002), and caring for a younger patient (B = -0.07, 95% CI -0.15 to 0.00, p = 0.049). Factors associated with greater caregiver anxiety symptoms were caregiver depression (B = 0.91, 95% CI 0.71-1.12, p < 0.0001) and younger patient age (B = -0.15, 95% CI -0.24 to -0.05, p = 0.003). CONCLUSION: Male gender, higher caregiver burden, greater patient depression symptoms, and younger patient age are associated with increased distress among caregivers of patients with malignant gliomas, underscoring the need for tailored supportive care interventions targeting caregivers at highest risk for psychological distress.
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Glioma , Distrés Psicológico , Ansiedad/epidemiología , Ansiedad/etiología , Ansiedad/psicología , Cuidadores/psicología , Depresión/epidemiología , Depresión/etiología , Depresión/psicología , Humanos , Masculino , Estudios Prospectivos , Estrés Psicológico/epidemiología , Estrés Psicológico/etiología , Estrés Psicológico/psicologíaRESUMEN
Palliative care clinicians provide psychological support throughout their patients' journeys with illness. Throughout our series exploring the psychological elements of palliative care (PEPC), we suggested that the quality of care is enhanced when clinicians have a deeper understanding of patients' psychological experience of serious illness. Palliative care clinicians are uniquely poised to offer patients a grounded, boundaried, and uplifting relationship to chart their own course through a life-altering or terminal illness. This final installment of our series on PEPC has two aims. First, to integrate PEPC into a comfort-focused or hospice setting and, second, to demonstrate how the core psychological concepts previously explored in the series manifest during the dying process. These aspects include frame/formulation, attachment, attunement, transference/countertransference, the holding environment, and clinician wellness.
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Cuidados Paliativos al Final de la Vida , Enfermería de Cuidados Paliativos al Final de la Vida , Hospitales para Enfermos Terminales , Cuidado Terminal , Contratransferencia , Humanos , Cuidados Paliativos/psicologíaRESUMEN
IMPORTANCE: Symptom monitoring interventions are increasingly becoming the standard of care in oncology, but studies assessing these interventions in the hospital setting are lacking. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of a symptom monitoring intervention on symptom burden and health care use among hospitalized patients with advanced cancer. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This nonblinded randomized clinical trial conducted from February 12, 2018, to October 30, 2019, assessed 321 hospitalized adult patients with advanced cancer and admitted to the inpatient oncology services of an academic hospital. Data obtained through November 13, 2020, were included in analyses, and all analyses assessed the intent-to-treat population. INTERVENTIONS: Patients in both the intervention and usual care groups reported their symptoms using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) and the 4-item Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4) daily via tablet computers. Patients assigned to the intervention had their symptom reports displayed during daily oncology rounds, with alerts for moderate, severe, or worsening symptoms. Patients assigned to usual care did not have their symptom reports displayed to their clinical teams. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was the proportion of days with improved symptoms, and the secondary outcomes were hospital length of stay and readmission rates. Linear regression was used to evaluate differences in hospital length of stay. Competing-risk regression (with death treated as a competing event) was used to compare differences in time to first unplanned readmission within 30 days. RESULTS: From February 12, 2018, to October 30, 2019, 390 patients (76.2% enrollment rate) were randomized. Study analyses to assess change in symptom burden included 321 of 390 patients (82.3%) who had 2 or more days of symptom reports completed (usual care, 161 of 193; intervention, 160 of 197). Participants had a mean (SD) age of 63.6 (12.8) years and were mostly male (180; 56.1%), self-reported as White (291; 90.7%), and married (230; 71.7%). The most common cancer type was gastrointestinal (118 patients; 36.8%), followed by lung (60 patients; 18.7%), genitourinary (39 patients; 12.1%), and breast (29 patients; 9.0%). No significant differences were detected between the intervention and usual care for the proportion of days with improved ESAS-physical (unstandardized coefficient [B] = -0.02; 95% CI, -0.10 to 0.05; P = .56), ESAS-total (B = -0.05; 95% CI, -0.12 to 0.02; P = .17), PHQ-4-depression (B = -0.02; 95% CI, -0.08 to 0.04; P = .55), and PHQ-4-anxiety (B = -0.04; 95% CI, -0.10 to 0.03; P = .29) symptoms. Intervention patients also did not differ significantly from patients receiving usual care for the secondary end points of hospital length of stay (7.59 vs 7.47 days; B = 0.13; 95% CI, -1.04 to 1.29; P = .83) and 30-day readmission rates (26.5% vs 33.8%; hazard ratio, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.48-1.09; P = .12). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This randomized clinical trial found that for hospitalized patients with advanced cancer, the assessed symptom monitoring intervention did not have a significant effect on patients' symptom burden or health care use. These findings do not support the routine integration of this type of symptom monitoring intervention for hospitalized patients with advanced cancer. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03396510.
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Hospitalización , Neoplasias , Adulto , Ansiedad , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Neoplasias/terapia , AutoinformeRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Hospitalized patients with cancer often experience a high symptom burden, which may impact care satisfaction and healthcare utilization. METHODS: We prospectively enrolled patients with cancer and unplanned hospitalizations from September 2014 to April 2017. Upon admission, we assessed patients' care satisfaction (FAMCARE items: satisfaction with care coordination and speed with which symptoms are treated) and physical (Edmonton Symptom Assessment System [ESAS]) and psychological (Patient Health Questionnaire-4 [PHQ-4]) symptoms. We used regression models to identify factors associated with care satisfaction and associations of satisfaction with symptom burden and hospital length of stay (LOS). RESULTS: Among 1,576 participants, most reported being "satisfied"/ "very satisfied" with care coordination (90%) and speed with which symptoms are treated (89%). Older age (coordination: B < 0.01, P = 0.02, speed: B = 0.01, P < 0.01) and admission to a dedicated oncology service (B = 0.20, P < 0.01 for each) were associated with higher satisfaction. Higher satisfaction with care coordination was associated with lower ESAS-physical (B = - 1.28, P < 0.01), ESAS-total (B = - 2.73, P < 0.01), PHQ4-depression (B = - 0.14, P = 0.02), and PHQ4-anxiety (B = - 0.16, P < 0.01) symptoms. Higher satisfaction with speed with which symptoms are treated was associated with lower ESAS-physical (B = - 1.32, P < 0.01), ESAS-total (B = - 2.46, P < 0.01), PHQ4-depression (B = - 0.14, P = 0.01), and PHQ4-anxiety (B = - 0.17, P < 0.01) symptoms. Satisfaction with care coordination (B = - 0.48, P = 0.04) and speed with which symptoms are treated (B = - 0.44, P = 0.04) correlated with shorter LOS. CONCLUSIONS: Hospitalized patients with cancer report high care satisfaction, which correlates with older age and admission to a dedicated oncology service. Significant associations among higher care satisfaction, lower symptom burden, and shorter hospital LOS highlight the importance of improving symptom management and care coordination in this population.
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Neoplasias , Satisfacción Personal , Humanos , Neoplasias/epidemiología , Cuidados Paliativos , Medición de Resultados Informados por el Paciente , Satisfacción del Paciente , Evaluación de SíntomasRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Studies show that early, integrated palliative care (PC) improves quality of life (QoL) and end-of-life (EoL) care for patients with poor-prognosis cancers. However, the optimal strategy for delivering PC for those with advanced cancers who have longer disease trajectories, such as metastatic breast cancer (MBC), remains unknown. We tested the effect of a PC intervention on the documentation of EoL care discussions, patient-reported outcomes, and hospice utilization in this population. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with MBC and clinical indicators of poor prognosis (n=120) were randomly assigned to receive an outpatient PC intervention (n=61) or usual care (n=59) between May 2, 2016, and December 26, 2018, at an academic cancer center. The intervention entailed 5 structured PC visits focusing on symptom management, coping, prognostic awareness, decision-making, and EoL planning. The primary outcome was documentation of EoL care discussions in the electronic health record (EHR). Secondary outcomes included patient-report of discussions with clinicians about EoL care, QoL, and mood symptoms at 6, 12, 18, and 24 weeks after baseline and hospice utilization. RESULTS: The rate of EoL care discussions documented in the EHR was higher among intervention patients versus those receiving usual care (67.2% vs 40.7%; P=.006), including a higher completion rate of a Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment form (39.3% vs 13.6%; P=.002). Intervention patients were also more likely to report discussing their EoL care wishes with their doctor (odds ratio [OR], 3.10; 95% CI, 1.21-7.94; P=.019) and to receive hospice services (OR, 4.03; 95% CI, 1.10-14.73; P=.035) compared with usual care patients. Study groups did not differ in patient-reported QoL or mood symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This PC intervention significantly improved rates of discussion and documentation regarding EoL care and delivery of hospice services among patients with MBC, demonstrating that PC can be tailored to address the supportive care needs of patients with longer disease trajectories. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02730858.
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Neoplasias de la Mama , Cuidados Paliativos al Final de la Vida , Neoplasias , Cuidado Terminal , Neoplasias de la Mama/terapia , Femenino , Humanos , Neoplasias/terapia , Cuidados Paliativos , Calidad de VidaRESUMEN
Palliative care supports referring colleagues in multiples ways. This support to referring colleagues is not often explored in the literature, yet the psychological concept that best describes it is the holding environment. The holding environment is the relational space palliative care offers referring clinicians for processing emotions and information. Using the case of Gloria, a patient living with cancer, this article discusses ways palliative care creates a holding environment for her referring oncologist, Dr. Ko. As palliative care clinicians, we create this relational space for referring clinicians when we change the dynamic, accompany the clinician, recognize challenges, establish expectations, and share a clinical second look. This article is the sixth in a series exploring the psychological elements of palliative care.
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Enfermería de Cuidados Paliativos al Final de la Vida , Neoplasias , Oncólogos , Femenino , Humanos , Neoplasias/terapia , Cuidados Paliativos , Derivación y ConsultaRESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Older adults with gastrointestinal cancers undergoing surgery often experience poor outcomes, such as prolonged postoperative hospital length of stay (LOS), intensive care unit (ICU) use, hospital readmissions, and complications. Involvement of geriatricians in the care of older adults with cancer can improve outcomes. We conducted a randomized trial of a perioperative geriatric intervention (PERI-OP) in older patients with gastrointestinal cancer undergoing surgery. METHODS: From 9/2016-4/2019, we randomly assigned patients age ≥ 65 with gastrointestinal cancer planning to undergo surgical resection to receive PERI-OP or usual care. Patients assigned to PERI-OP met with a geriatrician preoperatively in the outpatient setting and postoperatively as an inpatient consultant. The primary outcome was postoperative hospital LOS. Secondary outcomes included postoperative ICU use, 90-day hospital readmission rates, and complication rates. We conducted intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) analyses. RESULTS: ITT analyses included 137/160 patients who underwent surgery (usual care = 68/78, intervention = 69/82). PP analyses included the 68 usual care patients and the 30/69 intervention patients who received the preoperative and postoperative intervention components. ITT analyses demonstrated no significant differences between intervention and usual care in postoperative hospital LOS (7.23 vs 8.21 days, P = 0.374), ICU use (23.2% vs 32.4%, P = 0.257), 90-day hospital readmission rates (21.7% vs 25.0%, P = 0.690), or complication rates (17.4% vs 20.6%, P = 0.668). In PP analyses, intervention patients had shorter postoperative hospital LOS (5.90 vs 8.21 days, P = 0.024), but differences in ICU use (13.3% vs 32.4%, P = 0.081), 90-day hospital readmission rates (16.7% vs 25.0%, P = 0.439), and complication rates (6.7% vs 20.6%, P = 0.137) remained non-significant. CONCLUSIONS: In this randomized trial, PERI-OP did not have a significant impact on postoperative hospital LOS, ICU use, hospital readmissions, or complications. However, the subgroup who received PERI-OP as planned experienced encouraging results. Future studies of PERI-OP should include efforts, such as telehealth, to ensure the intervention is delivered as planned.
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Neoplasias , Readmisión del Paciente , Anciano , Humanos , Tiempo de Internación , Neoplasias/complicaciones , Neoplasias/cirugía , Complicaciones Posoperatorias/epidemiología , Complicaciones Posoperatorias/etiologíaRESUMEN
This is the seventh entry in the Psychological Elements of Palliative Care (PEPC) series. Previous articles have focused on the psychological elements of the care we provide patients and the relationships we build with our referring clinician colleagues. In this entry, we focus on how the PEPC also impact clinician well being. The PEPC are bidirectional: we impact patients, but patients also impact us. The reactions that we have to patients and the boundaries we set around the care we provide are two examples of psychological factors of care that can influence our well being. Creating spaces to explore and reflect on the psychological impact of the clinical care we provide is a key component of wellness. Such spaces vary in their configuration, but all share the opportunity to self-reflect and to experience emotional validation, normalization, and reality testing from peers or mentors. In mental health training, clinical supervision is one common format for creating such a space. While this can be replicated in the palliative care setting, other strategies include integrating a psychological orientation into interdisciplinary team meetings, creating peer support or process groups, and creating small groups within teams for longitudinal self-reflection.
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Enfermería de Cuidados Paliativos al Final de la Vida , Emociones , Humanos , Cuidados Paliativos/psicología , Grupo ParitarioRESUMEN
This is the fifth article in the psychological elements of palliative care series. This series focuses on how key concepts from psychotherapy can be used in the context of palliative care to improve communication and fine tune palliative care interventions. In this article, we discuss attachment-the system by which people form bonds in relationships. The different styles that people have in navigating relationships such as clinician-patient relationships develop from early life onward. Attachment styles are not pathological. But they are helpful to understand because they are a relatively stable factor that impacts how people relate to caregivers like clinicians. Our patients all express unique relational needs to us; some of our patients need closeness and reassurance to feel comfortable, others value independence and space. These needs are highly significant to palliative care clinicians; they inflect our patients' goals of care and values, they modulate our patients' psychosocial needs, and they elucidate the ways our patients respond to a range of therapeutic interventions. Understanding attachment gives us a window into these individual care needs and empowers us to tailor the care we provide for a wide range of patients.
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Enfermería de Cuidados Paliativos al Final de la Vida , Cuidados Paliativos , Cuidadores , Comunicación , Emociones , Humanos , Cuidados Paliativos/psicologíaRESUMEN
This is the second article in the psychological elements of palliative care (PEPC) series. This series focuses on how key concepts from psychotherapy can be used in the context of palliative care to improve communication and fine tune palliative care interventions. In this article, we introduce two foundational concepts: frame and formulation. The frame is the context in which care is delivered; it includes concrete aspects of clinical care such as where it takes place, for how long, and with what frequency. It also includes the conceptual aspects of care, including the specific roles of the clinician and the patient, emergency contingencies, and the extent to which emotion is invited within the clinical encounter. Defining and discussing the frame with patients are especially important in palliative care because of the strong emotions that arise when talking about serious illness and because many patients may not be familiar with palliative care before they are in care. Formulation is the process by which we make judgment-neutral psychological hypotheses to understand the feelings and behaviors of our patients. It is an ongoing, dynamic process whereby as we learn more about our patients, we integrate that data to improve our explanatory model of who they are. This helps us tailor our interventions to meet their unique needs and respect their life experiences, aptitudes, and vulnerabilities. Both concepts are foundational PEPC; understanding them will prepare readers to continue to the next four articles in the series.
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Enfermería de Cuidados Paliativos al Final de la Vida , Cuidados Paliativos , Comunicación , Emociones , Humanos , PsicoterapiaRESUMEN
Attunement, the process of understanding and responding to another's spoken and unspoken needs, is a fundamental concept of human development and the basis of meaningful relationships. To specialize the concept of attunement for palliative care, this article introduces clinical attunement. This term accounts for how palliative care clinicians must repeatedly balance patients' readiness to talk about the future with the cadence of the illness and need for medical decision making. Using the case of Gloria, an example patient living with cancer, this article discusses three skills to foster clinical attunement: asking, repairing disconnections, and offering containment. It is the fourth in a series exploring the psychological elements of palliative care.
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Enfermería de Cuidados Paliativos al Final de la Vida , Neoplasias , Humanos , Neoplasias/terapia , Cuidados Paliativos/psicologíaRESUMEN
Establishing an empathic clinical relationship is a cornerstone of high-quality palliative care. More than simply approaching patients with a pleasant affect or "being nice," we propose that skilled clinicians routinely employ distinct psychological elements when creating effective bonds with seriously ill patients and their families. Palliative care involvement has been shown to improve a variety of outcomes for patients with serious cancer, and yet the components of this salutary effect are still becoming known in the literature. Many believe that a successful interpersonal relationship is the essential factor. In this article, we will apply the psychological constructs of transference and countertransference to the unique arena of palliative care communication. Although most palliative care clinicians are not mental health clinicians and have not received training or certification in psychotherapeutic techniques, there are elements from these frameworks that may be advantageously applied. We will draw on sources from psychology and psychiatry to explore the in-between spaces of clinical encounter. Using the case of Gloria, a patient living with cancer drawn from our clinical experience, we will offer adapted definitions and novel applications of these psychological concepts. Branching from the theory to everyday practice, we will then offer practical suggestions to guide the palliative care clinician in recognizing and managing strong countertransference reactions. This article is the third installment of a series on the psychological elements of palliative care.
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Contratransferencia , Enfermería de Cuidados Paliativos al Final de la Vida , Emociones , Humanos , Cuidados Paliativos , Transferencia PsicológicaRESUMEN
Palliative care has been shown to help patients live well with serious illness, but the specific psychological factors that contribute to this benefit remain investigational. Although support of patient coping has emerged as a likely factor, it is unclear how palliative care helps patients to cope with serious illness. The therapeutic relationship has been proposed as a key element in beneficial patient outcomes, possibly undergirding effective patient and family coping. Understanding the distress of our patients with psychological depth requires the input of varied clinicians and thinkers. The complex conceptual model we developed draws upon the contributions of medicine, nursing, psychology, spiritual care, and social work disciplines. To elucidate these issues, we convened an interdisciplinary seminar of content experts to explore the psychological components of palliative care practice. "Healing Beyond the Cure: Exploring the Psychodynamic Aspects of Palliative Care" was held in May 2019 at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Over two days, the working group explored these essential elements of successful palliative care encounters through lecture and open discussion. This special report describes the key psychological aspects of palliative care that we believe underlie optimal adaptive coping in palliative care patients. We also outline key areas for further development in palliative care research, education, and clinical practice. The discussion held at this meeting became the basis for a planned series of articles on the psychological elements of palliative care that will be published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine on a monthly basis during the fall and winter of 2021-2022.