Palliative care patients in the emergency medical service: a retrospective cohort study from Finland.

BACKGROUND: Paramedics are often involved in treating palliative care patients with difficulties regarding symptom control. They report minimal training in palliative care and find decision-making difficult. This often leads to overtreatment and unnecessary transportation to the emergency department. The study's objective is to determine how much palliative patients use emergency services, how well are they recognized by paramedics and how paramedics choose care in terms of treatment and transportation. METHODS: This study is a retrospective cohort study based in the Finnish Tampere University Hospital area. We included patients with a palliative care decision setting the goal of therapy as palliative intent between 1 August 2021 and 31 December 2021 and who died before 1 April 2022. From these patients, records of nurse paramedic visits were retrieved. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the data. RESULTS: Paramedics visited 69 patients in 97 callouts. These callouts comprised 0.26% of the total dispatches in the study area. The most common reasons for callouts were general weakness, breathing difficulty and pain. The paramedics provided treatment in 40% of the missions. 55% of the patients were transported to the emergency department. A palliative care plan was recognized by the paramedics in 42 of the 97 callouts. A total of 38 patients were recognized as palliative care patients by the paramedics while in the cases of 31 patients, palliative care was not recognized in any dispatch. CONCLUSION: Patients in palliative care cause only a minimal load on the emergency medical services, but the paramedics do not necessarily recognize them as such. This leads to the risk of overtreatment and a high transportation rate to the emergency department, which is not an ethical choice. Recognition and treatment provided to palliative care patients by the paramedics could be improved with additional training and greater availability of patient records.

Facing a request for assisted death - views of Finnish physicians, a mixed method study.

BACKGROUND: Assisted death, including euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS), is under debate worldwide, and these practices are adopted in many Western countries. Physicians' attitudes toward assisted death vary across the globe, but little is known about physicians' actual reactions when facing a request for assisted death. There is a clear gap in evidence on how physicians act and respond to patients' requests for assisted death in countries where these actions are not legal. METHODS: A survey including statements concerning euthanasia and PAS and an open question about their actions when facing a request for assisted death was sent to all Finnish physicians. Quantitative data are presented as numbers and percentages. Statistical significance was tested by using the Pearson chi-square test, when appropriate. The qualitative analysis was performed by using an inductive content analysis approach, where categories emerge from the data. RESULTS: Altogether, 6889 physicians or medical students answered the survey, yielding a response rate of 26%. One-third of participants agreed or partly agreed that they could assist a patient in a suicide. The majority (69%) of the participants fully or partly agreed that euthanasia should only be accepted due to difficult physical symptoms, while 12% fully or partly agreed that life turning into a burden should be an acceptable reason for euthanasia. Of the participants, 16% had faced a request for euthanasia or PAS, and 3033 answers from 2565 respondents were achieved to the open questions concerning their actions regarding the request and ethical aspects of assisted death. In the qualitative analysis, six main categories, including 22 subcategories, were formed regarding the phenomenon of how physicians act when facing this request. The six main categories were as follows: providing an alternative to the request, enabling care and support, ignoring the request, giving a reasoned refusal, complying with the request, and seeing the request as a possibility. CONCLUSIONS: Finnish physicians' actions regarding the requests for assisted death, and attitudes toward euthanasia and PAS vary substantially. Open discussion, education, and recommendations concerning a request for assisted death and ethics around it are also highly needed in countries where euthanasia and PAS are not legal.

The effect of palliative outpatient units on resource use for cancer patients in Finland.

BACKGROUND: As cancer incidences are increasing, the means to provide effective palliative care (PC) are called for. There is evidence, that PC may prevent futile treatment at the end of life (EOL) thus implicating that PC decreases resource use at the EOL, however, the effects of outpatient PC units remain largely unknown. We surveyed the national use of Finnish tertiary care PC units and their effects on resource use at the EOL in real-life environments. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Cancer patients treated in the departments of Oncology at all five Finnish university hospitals in 2013 and deceased by 31 December 2014 were identified; of the 6010 patients 2007 were randomly selected for the study cohort. The oncologic therapies received and the resource usage of emergency services and hospital wards were collected from the hospitals' medical records. RESULTS: A PC unit was visited by 37% of the patients a median 112 days before death. A decision to terminate all life-prolonging cancer treatments was more often made for patients visiting the PC unit (90% vs. 66%, respectively). A visit to a PC unit was associated with significantly fewer visits to emergency departments (ED) and hospitalization during the last 90 days of life; the mean difference in ED visits decreased by 0.48 (SD 0.33 - 0.62, p < 0.001), and the mean inpatient days by 7.1 (SD 5.93 - 8.25, p < 0.001). A PC visit unit was independently associated with decreased acute hospital resource use during the last 30 and 90 days before death in multivariable analyses. CONCLUSION: Cancer patients' contact with a PC unit was significantly associated with the reduced use of acute hospital services at the EOL, however; only one-third of the patients visited a PC unit. Thus, systematic PC unit referral practices for patients with advanced cancer are called for.

'I am still valuable' - A qualitative study of incurable cancer patients coping in hospice care.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge of the experiences of coping in patients with incurable cancer is essential for high-quality palliative and end-of-life care. AIM AND OBJECTIVE: To describe the coping experiences of patients with incurable cancer in hospice care to better develop patient-centred care. METHODS: The data for this qualitative study were collected through semi structured interviews, with patients with incurable cancer in hospice care (N = 20) and analysed with inductive content analysis. Ethical and organisational approvals were obtained, and the participants received both verbal and written information before consenting to participate. RESULTS: The patients' coping was enhanced with their involvement in treatment-related decisions. Valuing day-to-day living and coping with emotional stressors helped them accept their own life situations. Accepting their increasing fragility was enhanced by their self-reappraisal. The patients found security in the possibility of receiving support when they needed it. Although the ordinariness of dying in hospice care settings was sometimes too much to bear, they understood dying to be a part of the natural cycle of life. They questioned the responsiveness of healthcare services because they felt that they were not always heard. STUDY LIMITATIONS: Because this study was limited to a specific population of cancer patients in hospice care, the results might not be generalised to other patient groups with chronic diseases or other palliative care settings. CONCLUSIONS: The experiences of patients in hospice care of coping with incurable cancer were reminiscent of the common coping process descriptions. Surprisingly, even though participants voiced that they had accepted their situation, dying itself was something they did not find crucial to discuss. The crucial aspects - without being in denial - dealt more with focusing on positive thinking and facing life.

Paramedics' experiences and educational needs when participating end-of-life care at home: A mixed method study.

BACKGROUND: Paramedics face end-of-life care patients during emergency calls and more recently through planned protocols. However, paramedics experiences and educational needs concerning preplanned end-of-life care at home remain largely unknown. AIM: To describe experiences and educational needs of the paramedics included in the end-of-life care protocol. DESIGN: A mixed method study with a questionnaire including open ended questions and numeric evaluations on a Likert scale. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: The questionnaire was delivered to and answered by all the 192 paramedics working in North Karelia fire and rescue department during the time of the data collection in 2017. RESULTS: Over 80% of the paramedics agreed that the protocol helped them to take care of the patients and to improve the quality of end-of-life care. Visits to the patients were considered useful and the end-of-life care as a meaningful work by 76.5% and 62.5% of the paramedics, respectively. The paramedics expressed challenges in psychosocial aspects, communication, symptom management, and their role in end-of-life care. Encountering and communication with the families as well as managing the most common symptoms were emphasized as educational needs. Using a patient controlled analgesia device emerged as an example of practical educational aspect. CONCLUSIONS: Paramedics considered end-of-life care at home meaningful but called for more competency in supporting and encountering the families and in symptom management. Our results can be utilized when developing end-of-life care protocols and education for the paramedics. Patients' and families' views on the paramedics' participation in end-of-life care should be evaluated in the future.

Endoscopic duodenal stenting is efficient, but has higher rate of reoperations than gastrojejunostomy in palliative treatment for gastric outlet obstruction.

BACKGROUND: Surgical gastrojejunostomy has traditionally been the palliative treatment of choice for patients with advanced malignancies and gastric outlet obstruction syndrome. Recently, palliative endoscopic duodenal stenting has increased in popularity. We report outcomes after gastrojejunostomy and duodenal stenting when used for palliative indications. METHODS: Consecutive patients undergoing palliative gastrojejunostomy or palliative endoscopic duodenal stenting in a Finnish tertiary referral center between January 2015 and December 2020 were included. The postoperative outcomes of these two palliative interventions were compared. The main outcome measures were mortality and morbidity, rate of reoperations, postoperative oral intake ability, and length of hospital stay. RESULTS: A total of 88 patients, 46 (52%) patients underwent palliative gastrojejunostomy and 42 (48%) duodenal stenting. All patients had malignant disease, most typically hepatopancreatic cancer. Nineteen (44%) patients in duodenal stenting group and 4 (8.7%) patients in gastrojejunostomy group required subsequent interventions due to persisting or progressing symptoms (p < 0.001). Median delay until first oral intake was 2 days (1-24) after gastrojejunostomy and 0 days (0-3) after stenting (p < 0.001). Postoperative morbidity was 30% after gastrojejunostomy and 45% after stenting (p < 0.001). Median length of hospital stay was 7 days (1-27) after surgery and 5 days (0-20) after endoscopy (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Patients undergoing endoscopic duodenal stenting are more able to initiate rapid oral intake and have shorter hospital stay. On the other hand, there are significantly more reoperations in stenting group. If the patient's life expectancy is short, we recommend stenting, but for patients whose life expectancy is longer, gastrojejunostomy could be a better procedure, for the reasons mentioned above.

Ambivalence toward euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide has decreased among physicians in Finland.

BACKGROUND: Debates around euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) are ongoing around the globe. Public support has been mounting in Western countries, while some decline has been observed in the USA and Eastern Europe. Physicians' support for euthanasia and PAS has been lower than that of the general public, but a trend toward higher acceptance among physicians has been seen in recent years. The aim of this study was to examine the current attitudes of Finnish physicians toward euthanasia and PAS and whether there have been changes in these attitudes over three decades. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted with all Finnish physicians of working age in 2020 and the results were compared to previous studies conducted in 1993, 2003 and 2013. RESULTS: The proportions of physicians fully agreeing and fully disagreeing with the legalization of euthanasia increased from 1993 to 2020 (from 5 to 25%, p < 0.001, and from 30 to 34%, p < 0.001, respectively). The number of physicians, who expressed no opinion for or against euthanasia (cannot say) decreased from 19 to 5% (p < 0.001) during the same period. The proportion of physicians having no opinion (cannot say) of whether a physician should be punished for assisting in a suicide decreased from 20 to 10% (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that Finnish physicians' ambivalence toward euthanasia and PAS has decreased. The ongoing debate has probably forced physicians to form more solid opinions on these matters. Our study highlights that attitudes toward euthanasia and PAS are still divided within the medical profession.

Finnish nursing students' perceptions of the development needs in palliative care education and factors influencing learning in undergraduate nursing studies - a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Nurses have an essential role in providing high-quality palliative care to patients and their families. Hence, they require adequate palliative care education. However, there is only limited insight into how final-year nursing students perceive palliative care education in undergraduate nursing programs. This study aimed to describe nursing students' perspectives of the development needs of palliative care education. An additional two aims emerged based on the collected data, namely, to describe the preferred education for palliative care and the factors which promote or hinder palliative care learning during undergraduate nursing studies. METHODS: The research was guided by a descriptive qualitative approach and applied inductive content analysis. The frequencies (f) of identified codes (reduced expressions) were counted to show the noteworthiness of each category in relation to the entirety. The participants were final-year nursing students (n = 766) who had participated in a national survey. RESULTS: The inductive content analysis identified three unifying categories. The first was 'Development needs and views of palliative care education' (f = 524), which consisted of the main categories 'the need to develop palliative care education' (f = 414) and 'meaning of palliative care and its education' (f = 110). Secondly 'Preferred types of palliative care education' (f = 1379), including the main categories 'teaching contents in palliative care education' (f = 905), 'teaching methods for palliative care learning' (f = 393), and 'placement of palliative care studies' (f = 81). Thirdly 'The facilitators and barriers to palliative care learning' (f = 401), consisting of the main categories 'factors facilitating palliative care learning' (f = 66) and 'barriers to palliative care learning' (f = 335). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides detailed information about nursing student's perspectives of palliative care education and its development needs. Hence, the results are relevant to decision-makers who want to develop undergraduate nursing curricula. This study highlights that palliative care education should be developed by ensuring that all students have equal access to palliative care education provided by highly competent teachers. Possibilities for clinical placements or visits to palliative care units during the education should also be improved. The participating students felt unprepared to provide high-quality palliative care even though they responded that palliative care is an important topic in their nursing studies.

Preplanned participation of paramedics in end-of-life care at home: A retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Paramedics commonly face acute crises of patients in palliative care, but their involvement in end-of-life care is not planned systematically. AIM: To evaluate a protocol for end-of-life care at home including pre-planned integration of paramedics and end-of-life care wards. DESIGN: Paramedic visits to patients in end-of-life care protocol were retrospectively studied. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: All of the patients who had registered for the protocol between 1 March 2015 and 28 February 2017 in North Karelia, Finland, were included in this study. RESULTS: A total of 256 patients were registered for the protocol and 306 visits by paramedic were needed. A need for symptom control (38%) and transportation (29%) were the most common reasons for a visit. Paramedics visited 43% and 70% of the patients in areas with and without 24/7 palliative home care services, respectively (p < 0.001); while 58% of all the visits were done outside of office hours. Problems were resolved at home in 31% of the visits. The patient was transferred to a pre-planned end-of-life care ward and to an emergency department in 48% and 16% of the cases, respectively. More patients died in end-of-life care wards in areas without (54%) than with (33%) 24/7 home care services (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Integration of paramedics into end-of-life care at home is reasonable especially in rural areas without 24/7 palliative care services and outside of office hours. The majority of patients can be managed at home or with the help of an end-of-life care ward without an emergency visit.

Physicians' decreased tendency to choose palliative care for patients with advanced dementia between 1999 and 2015.

BACKGROUND: Physicians' decision-making for seriously ill patients with advanced dementia is of high importance, especially as the prevalence of dementia is rising rapidly, and includes many challenging ethical, medical and juridical aspects. We assessed the change in this decision-making over 16 years (from 1999 to 2015) and several background factors influencing physicians' decision. METHODS: A postal survey including a hypothetical patient-scenario representing a patient with an advanced dementia and a life-threatening gastrointestinal bleeding was sent to 1182 and 1258 Finnish physicians in 1999 and 2015, respectively. The target groups were general practitioners (GPs), surgeons, internists and oncologists. The respondents were asked to choose between several life-prolonging and palliative care approaches. The influence of physicians' background factors and attitudes on their decision were assessed. RESULTS: The response rate was 56%. A palliative care approach was chosen by 57 and 50% of the physicians in 1999 and 2015, respectively (p = 0.01). This change was statistically significant among GPs (50 vs 40%, p = 0.018) and oncologists (77 vs 56%, p = 0.011). GPs chose a palliative care approach less often than other responders in both years (50 vs. 63% in 1999 and 40 vs. 56% in 2015, p < 0.001). In logistic regression analysis, responding in 2015 and being a GP remained explanatory factors for a lower tendency to choose palliative care. The impact of family's benefit on the decision-making decreased, whereas the influence of the patient's benefit and ethical values as well as the patient's or physician's legal protection increased from 1999 to 2015. CONCLUSIONS: Physicians chose a palliative care approach for a patient with advanced dementia and life-threatening bleeding less often in 2015 than in 1999. Specialty, attitudes and other background factors influenced significantly physician decision-making. Education on the identification and palliative care of the patients with late-stage dementia are needed to make these decisions more consistent.

Mouthpiece ventilation in the management of dyspnea: A single-arm pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Noninvasive ventilation may relieve dyspnea in advanced diseases, but noninvasive ventilation through mouthpiece has not been tested in palliative care. AIM: To assess the feasibility of mouthpiece ventilation in relieving dyspnea among patients with advanced disease. DESIGN: In this prospective single-arm pilot study, the change in dyspnea by mouthpiece ventilation was measured with numeric rating scale (0-10) and 100-mm visual analogue scale. Overall, benefit and adverse events of the therapy were also assessed. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-two patients with an advanced disease and dyspnea from the Tampere University Hospital or Pirkanmaa Hospice were treated with mouthpiece ventilation. The patients used mouthpiece ventilation as long as they preferred, but for a minimum of 5 min. RESULTS: After the treatment period lasting a median of 13.5 min, mean decrease in dyspnea was -1.1 (95 % confidence interval = -2.2 to -0.1, p = 0.034) on numeric rating scale and -11.8 mm (95 % confidence interval = -19.9 to -3.7, p = 0.006) on visual analogue scale. Nonetheless, there was a high variability in this effect between individual patients. About half of the patients found mouthpiece ventilation beneficial. No serious adverse events occurred, but dry mouth was the most common adverse event. Anxiety did not increase with mouthpiece ventilation. CONCLUSION: Mouthpiece ventilation is feasible and may relieve dyspnea in some patients with an advanced disease. Further studies are needed, and these might concentrate on stable patients in early palliative care. Before initiation, this study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov (study no. NCT03012737).

The required competencies of physicians within palliative care from the perspectives of multi-professional expert groups: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Although statements on the competencies required from physicians working within palliative care exist, these requirements have not been described within different levels of palliative care provision by multi-professional workshops, comprising representatives from working life. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the competencies required from physicians working within palliative care from the perspectives of multi-professional groups of representatives from working life. METHODS: A qualitative approach, using a workshop method, was conducted, wherein the participating professionals and representatives of patient organizations discussed the competencies that are required in palliative care, before reaching and documenting a consensus. The data (n = 222) was collected at workshops held in different parts of Finland and it was analyzed using a qualitative content analysis method. RESULTS: The description of the competencies required of every physician working within palliative care at the general level included 13 main categories and 50 subcategories in total. 'Competence in advanced care planning and decision-making' was the main category which was obtained from the highest number of reduced expressions from the original data (f = 125). Competence in social interactions was another strong main category (f = 107). In specialist level data, six main categories with 22 subcategories in total were found. 'Competence in complex symptom management' was the main category which was obtained from the biggest number of reduced expressions (f = 46). A notable association between general level and specialist level data was related to networking, since one of the general level categories was 'Competence in consultations and networking' (f = 34) and one of the specialist level categories was 'Competence to offer consultative and educational support to other professionals' (f = 30). Moreover, part of the specialist level results were subcategories which belonged to the main categories produced from the general level data. CONCLUSIONS: The competencies described in this study emphasize decision-making, social interactions and networking. It is important to listen to the voices of the working-life representatives when planning curricula. Moreover, the views of the working-life representatives inform how the competencies gained during their education meet the challenges of the ordinary work.

The impact of the duration of the palliative care period on cancer patients with regard to the use of hospital services and the place of death: a retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: In order to avoid unnecessary use of hospital services at the end-of-life, palliative care should be initiated early enough in order to have sufficient time to initiate and carry out good quality advance care planning (ACP). This single center study assesses the impact of the PC decision and its timing on the use of hospital services at EOL and the place of death. METHODS: A randomly chosen cohort of 992 cancer patients treated in a tertiary hospital between Jan 2013 -Dec 2014, who were deceased by the end of 2014, were selected from the total number of 2737 identified from the hospital database. The PC decision (the decision to terminate life-prolonging anticancer treatments and focus on symptom centered palliative care) and use of PC unit services were studied in relation to emergency department (ED) visits, hospital inpatient days and place of death. RESULTS: A PC decision was defined for 82% of the patients and 37% visited a PC unit. The earlier the PC decision was made, the more often patients had an appointment at the PC unit (> 180 days prior to death 72% and < 14 days 10%). The number of ED visits and inpatient days were highest for patients with no PC decision and lowest for patients with both a PC decision and an PC unit appointment (60 days before death ED visits 1.3 vs 0.8 and inpatient days 9.9 vs 2.9 respectively, p < 0.01). Patients with no PC decision died more often in secondary/tertiary hospitals (28% vs. 19% with a PC decision, and 6% with a decision and an appointment to a PC unit). CONCLUSIONS: The PC decision to initiate a palliative goal for the treatment had a distinct impact on the use of hospital services at the EOL. Contact with a PC unit further increased the likelihood of EOL care at primary care.

Assessing the utilization of the decision to implement a palliative goal for the treatment of cancer patients during the last year of life at Helsinki University Hospital: a historic cohort study.

Background: To avoid aggressive treatments at the end-of-life and to provide palliative care (PC), physicians need to terminate futile anti-cancer treatments and define the palliative goal of the treatment in time. This single center study assesses the practices used to make the decision that leads to treatment with a palliative goal, i.e., the PC decision and its effect on anti-cancer treatments at the end of life.Material and methods: Patients with a cancer diagnosis treated in tertiary hospital during 1st January 2013 - 31st December 2014 and deceased by the end of 2014 were identified in the hospital database (N = 2737). Of these patients, 992 were randomly selected for this study. The PC decision was screened from patient records, i.e., termination of cancer-specific treatments and a focus on symptom-centered PC.Results: The PC decision was defined in 82% of the patients during the last year of life (49% >30 days and 33% ≤30 days before death, 18% with no decision). The median time from the decision to death was 46 days. Systemic cancer therapy was given during the last month of life in 1%, 36% and 38% (p < .001) and radiotherapy 22%, 40% and 31% (p = .03) cases, respectively; referral to a PC unit was made in 62%, 22% and 11%, respectively (p < .001). In logistic regression analyses younger age, shorter duration of the disease trajectory and type of cancer (e.g., breast cancer) were associated with a lack or late timing of the PC decision.Conclusion: The decision to initiate a palliative goal for the treatment was frequently made for cancer patients but occurred late for every third patient. Younger age and certain cancer types were associated with late PC decisions, thus leading to anti-cancer treatments continuing until close to the death with low access to a PC unit.

Does special education in palliative medicine make a difference in end-of-life decision-making?

BACKGROUND: Characteristics of the physician influence the essential decision-making in end-of-life care. However, the effect of special education in palliative medicine on different aspects of decision-making in end-of-life care remains unknown. The aim of this study was to explore the decision-making in end-of-life care among physicians with or without special competency in palliative medicine (cPM). METHODS: A questionnaire including an advanced lung cancer patient-scenario with multiple decision options in end-of-life care situation was sent to 1327 Finnish physicians. Decisions to withdraw or withhold ten life-prolonging interventions were asked on a scale from 1 (definitely would not) to 5 (definitely would) - first, without additional information and then after the family's request for aggressive treatment and the availability of an advance directive. Values from chronological original scenario, family's appeal and advance directive were clustered by trajectory analysis. RESULTS: We received 699 (53%) responses. The mean values of the ten answers in the original scenario were 4.1 in physicians with cPM, 3.4 in general practitioners, 3.4 in surgeons, 3.5 in internists and 3.8 in oncologists (p < 0.05 for physicians with cPM vs. oncologists and p < 0.001 for physicians with cPM vs. others). Younger age and not being an oncologist or not having cPM increased aggressive treatment decisions in multivariable logistic regression analysis. The less aggressive approach of physicians with cPM differed between therapies, being most striking concerning intravenous hydration, nasogastric tube and blood transfusions. The aggressive approach increased by the family's request (p < 0.001) and decreased by an advance directive (p < 0.001) in all physicians, regardless of special education in palliative medicine. CONCLUSION: Physicians with special education in palliative medicine make less aggressive decisions in end-of-life care. The impact of specialty on decision-making varies among treatment options. Education in end-of-life care decision-making should be mandatory for young physicians and those in specialty training.

Changes in attitudes towards hastened death among Finnish physicians over the past sixteen years.

BACKGROUND: The ethics of hastened death are complex. Studies on physicians' opinions about assisted dying (euthanasia or assisted suicide) exist, but changes in physicians' attitudes towards hastened death in clinical decision-making and the background factors explaining this remain unclear. The aim of this study was to explore the changes in these attitudes among Finnish physicians. METHODS: A questionnaire including hypothetical patient scenarios was sent to 1182 and 1258 Finnish physicians in 1999 and 2015, respectively. Two scenarios of patients with advanced cancer were presented: one requesting an increase in his morphine dose to a potentially lethal level and another suffering a cardiac arrest. Physicians' attitudes towards assisted death, life values and other background factors were queried as well. The response rate was 56%. RESULTS: The morphine dose was increased by 25% and 34% of the physicians in 1999 and 2015, respectively (p < 0.001). Oncologists approved the increase most infrequently without a significant change between the study years (15% vs. 17%, p = 0.689). Oncological specialty, faith in God, female gender and younger age were independent factors associated with the reluctance to increase the morphine dose. Euthanasia, but not assisted suicide, was considered less reprehensible in 2015 (p = 0.008). In both years, most physicians (84%) withheld cardiopulmonary resuscitation. CONCLUSION: Finnish physicians accepted the risk of hastening death more often in 2015 than in 1999. The physicians' specialty and many other background factors influenced this acceptance. They also regarded euthanasia as less reprehensible now than they did 16 years ago.

Undergraduate curriculum in palliative medicine at Tampere University increases students' knowledge.

BACKGROUND: Education in palliative medicine (PM) at medical schools reveals wide variation despite the increasing importance of palliative care. Many universities present poor description of the benefits and detailed content of the total curriculum in PM. Using the recommendations of European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) as a reference, we evaluated the content and outcomes of the curriculum in PM at the University of Tampere, Finland. METHODS: We searched for a PM curriculum by examining the teaching offered by every specialty and compared it to EAPC recommendations. Students' knowledge was evaluated using a progress test over three consecutive years. RESULTS: We found 53.5 teaching hours addressing PM issues, which exceeds the recommendation of the EAPC. Basics, symptom management, ethics, and communication skills were well established, while education in psychosocial/spiritual aspects, teamwork and self-reflection failed to reach the recommendations. Out of the maximum of 4.0, the progress test mean scores in PM among the third, fourth, fifth and sixth year students were 0.1 (SD 0.71), 0.69 (SD 1.28), 1.38 (SD 1.46) and 2.53 (SD 1.26), respectively (p < 0.001). This growing knowledge was associated with the timely increase in teaching provided through the PM discipline. In addition, the students who completed the optional PM course achieved better mean scores (2.66; SD 1.27) than the others (1.33; SD 1.43) (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The curriculum in PM at the University of Tampere is integrated into the teaching of many disciplines and complied well with the EAPC recommendations. This education led to increasing knowledge in PM among medical students.

End-of-life care of patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

BACKGROUND: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive disease with median survival from 2 to 7 years. Palliative care is an important part of patients´ care as lung transplantation is not an option for the majority of patients. The aim of this study was to describe treatment practices, decision-making and symptoms during end-of-life care of IPF patients. METHODS: We identified 59 deceased patients from a national prospective IPF cohort study (FinnishIPF) and analyzed retrospectively their health care documentation during the 6 months that preceded death. RESULTS: Hospital was the place of death for 47 patients (80 %). A majority of the patients (93 %) were hospitalized for a mean of 30 days (range 1-96 days) during the last 6 months of their life. Altogether, patients spent 15 % of their last 6 months of life in a hospital. End-of-life decisions and do not resuscitate (DNR) orders were made for 19 (32 %) and 34 (57 %) of the patients, respectively, and 22 (42 %) of these decisions were made ≤ 3 days prior to death. During the final hospital stay, antibiotics were given to 79 % and non-invasive ventilation to 36 % of patients. During the last 24 h of life, radiologic imaging or laboratory tests were taken in 19 % and 53 % of the hospitalized patients, respectively. These tests and life prolonging therapies were more common in tertiary hospitals compared to other places of death. Dyspnea (66 %) and pain (31 %) were the most common symptoms recorded. Opioids were prescribed to 71 % of the patients during the last week before death. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of IPF patients died in a hospital with ongoing life-prolonging procedures until death. The frequent use of opioids is an indicator of an intention to relieve symptoms, but end-of-life decisions were still made very late. Early integrated palliative care with advance care plan could improve the end-of-life care of dying IPF patients.

Impact of Primary Tumor Location on Demographics, Resectability, Outcomes, and Quality of Life in Finnish Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients (Subgroup Analysis of the RAXO Study).

The primary tumor location (PTL) is associated with the phenotype, metastatic sites, mutations, and outcomes of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients, but this has mostly been studied according to sidedness (right vs. left sided). We studied right colon vs. left colon vs. rectal PTL in a real-life study population (n = 1080). Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was assessed multi-cross-sectionally with QLQ-C30, QLQ-CR29, EQ-5D, and 15D. A chi-square, Kaplan-Meier, and Cox regression were used to compare the groups. The PTL was in the right colon in 310 patients (29%), the left colon in 396 patients (37%), and the rectum in 375 patients (35%). The PTL was associated with distinct differences in metastatic sites during the disease trajectory. The resectability, conversion, and resection rates were lowest in the right colon, followed by the rectum, and were highest in the left colon. Overall survival was shortest for right colon compared with left colon or rectal PTL (median 21 vs. 35 vs. 36 months), with the same trends after metastasectomy or systemic therapy only. PTL also remained statistically significant in a multivariable model. The distribution of symptoms varied according to PTL, especially between the right colon (with general symptoms of metastases) and rectal PTL (with sexual- and bowel-related symptoms). mCRC, according to PTL, behaves differently regarding metastatic sites, resectability of the metastases, outcomes of treatment, and HRQoL.

Peripheral nerve blocks in advanced cancer pain: retrospective case series.

OBJECTIVES: Patients with cancer often suffer severe pain that is not relieved with systemic analgesics and requires further treatment options. This study aims to investigate whether peripheral nerve blocks are a feasible treatment option in patients with incurable cancer who suffer from severe pain. METHODS: All patients with advanced cancer who received a peripheral nerve block for the management of pain at the Tampere University Hospital between January 2015 and December 2018 were included in this retrospective study. The characteristics of the patients' features of the nerve blocks, opioid dosing (daily morphine equivalent) before and after the blocks, and patient-reported pain relief following peripheral block were assessed from the medical records. RESULTS: Sixteen of the 17 patients included in this study received pain relief through a nerve block. Daily opioid dose was decreased with the block in 12 (71%) patients with a median change in daily morphine equivalent of -20 mg (IQR: -180 to 9). One infection of the catheter and two other transient adverse events occurred, but none was serious or fatal. CONCLUSIONS: Peripheral nerve blocks seem safe and may provide considerable analgesia and decrease the need for opioids in patients with advanced cancer.