Association between attendance at a specialist palliative care day unit and improvement in patient symptoms and quality of life

BACKGROUND

Specialist palliative day care is an area of palliative care which has a notable scarcity of research. Evidence is needed on the role of palliative day care to improve patients' quality of life and symptom management, while recognising the different patient cohorts that use the service.

AIM

To determine the symptoms and quality of life of the patient cohort that are affected by the completion of a full therapeutic cycle (8 to 9 weeks) at a specialist palliative care day unit (SPCDU).

METHOD

A retrospective cohort study was carried out from January 2016 to December 2017. Patient related outcome measures (PROMs) were collected as part of routine clinical paperwork at admission and discharge, and these were used to determine symptoms and quality of life pre-attendance and on completion of an 8 to 9 week therapeutic cycle at the SPCDU.

RESULTS

Descriptive analysis demonstrated improvement across the many symptoms that were analysed. Quality of life analysis also established improvement. Statistically significant difference was achieved in several areas. Total physical symptoms (p value=.009) confirmed the positive impact attendance at SPCDU has on physical symptoms. Specific symptoms which displayed a statistically significant difference included: poor appetite (p value=.002), weakness (p value=.03) and the anxiety felt by family/friends (p value=.029). The quality of a patient's life also displayed statistically significant difference (p value=.000).

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates that attendance at a SPCDU may positively impact a patients' symptoms and quality of life. A more uniform national approach to specialist palliative day care delivery, alongside multi-setting research, may further bolster the image of palliative day care. This will improve referrals to and occupancy of SPDCUs and benefit the palliative patient in the community.

Neuropalliative care: An integrative review of the nursing literature

BACKGROUND

In the last few decades, research and clinical care have attempted to identify and meet the palliative care needs, concerns and challenges of patients of all ages with neurologic disease, under the newly defined subspecialty of neuropalliative care. However, the role of nurses in care organization and provision, as well as nursing priorities with regards to the needs and concerns of patients and families, have not been well articulated. The purpose of this review is to outline priorities in neuropalliative care nursing and examine what questions have been investigated to date.

METHODS

The integrative review approach was used to produce an analysis of existing nursing literature on neuropalliative care. As the broadest of research review methods, integrative review includes experimental and non-experimental research, as well as theoretical work, allowing us to engage with concepts and evidence from multiple perspectives.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Six themes of concern for nursing care and research were identified: (1) managing a heavy symptom burden, (2) unmet care needs, (3) the need for care pathways and protocols, (4) caregiver burden, (5) poor recognition of the dying, and (6) the impact of communication and cognition changes. An analysis and critique of the literature yielded the following recommendations for clinical and research priorities: (1) a paradigm shift in how neurologic disorders is perceived and managed, (2) redefining the scope of neuropalliative care and services, (3) understanding and addressing the needs of family members and caregivers and including them in assessments, care planning and provision; (4) having the difficult conversations and asking the right questions.

CONCLUSIONS

Nurses and nursing studies pay attention to things that matter to patients and their families. As the health professionals who spend the most time with patients and families at the bedside and in the community, nurses are well placed to build strong relationships, recognize needs and concerns, and recommend strategies and interventions to enhance comfort and alleviate suffering. In neuropalliative care nursing, this relational engagement becomes critical since patients experience changes to their cognition and communication as a result of disease progression. To enhance patient agency during a vulnerable time, methodologies to include patients who think and communicate differently in clinical care and research are urgently needed. Tweetable abstract: Neuropalliative nursing researchers call for better prognostication, recognition of the dying process, including patients in care decisions.

EAN Guideline on Palliative Care of People with Severe, Progressive Multiple Sclerosis

Background and Purpose: Patients with severe, progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) have complex physical and psychosocial needs, typically over several years. Few treatment options are available to prevent or delay further clinical worsening in this population. The objective was to develop an evidence-based clinical practice guideline for the palliative care of patients with severe, progressive MS. Methods: This guideline was developed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation methodology. Formulation of the clinical questions was performed in the Patients-Intervention-Comparator-Outcome format, involving patients, carers and healthcare professionals (HPs). No uniform definition of severe MS exists: in this guideline, constant bilateral support required to walk 20 m without resting (Expanded Disability Status Scale score >6.0) or higher disability is referred to. When evidence was lacking for this population, recommendations were formulated using indirect evidence or good practice statements were devised. Results: Ten clinical questions were formulated. They encompassed general and specialist palliative care, advance care planning, discussing with HPs the patient's wish to hasten death, symptom management, multidisciplinary rehabilitation, interventions for caregivers and interventions for HPs. A total of 34 recommendations (33 weak, 1 strong) and seven good practice statements were devised. Conclusions: The provision of home-based palliative care (either general or specialist) is recommended with weak strength for patients with severe, progressive MS. Further research on the integration of palliative care and MS care is needed. Areas that currently lack evidence of efficacy in this population include advance care planning, the management of symptoms such as fatigue and mood problems, and interventions for caregivers and HPs.

EAN guideline on palliative care of people with severe, progressive multiple sclerosis

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Patients with severe, progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) have complex physical and psychosocial needs, typically over several years. Few treatment options are available to prevent or delay further clinical worsening in this population. The objective was to develop an evidence-based clinical practice guideline for the palliative care of patients with severe, progressive MS.

METHODS

This guideline was developed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation methodology. Formulation of the clinical questions was performed in the Patients-Intervention-Comparator-Outcome format, involving patients, carers and healthcare professionals (HPs). No uniform definition of severe MS exists: in this guideline, constant bilateral support required to walk 20 m without resting (Expanded Disability Status Scale score > 6.0) or higher disability is referred to. When evidence was lacking for this population, recommendations were formulated using indirect evidence or good practice statements were devised.

RESULTS

Ten clinical questions were formulated. They encompassed general and specialist palliative care, advance care planning, discussing with HPs the patient's wish to hasten death, symptom management, multidisciplinary rehabilitation, interventions for caregivers and interventions for HPs. A total of 34 recommendations (33 weak, 1 strong) and seven good practice statements were devised.

CONCLUSIONS

The provision of home-based palliative care (either general or specialist) is recommended with weak strength for patients with severe, progressive MS. Further research on the integration of palliative care and MS care is needed. Areas that currently lack evidence of efficacy in this population include advance care planning, the management of symptoms such as fatigue and mood problems, and interventions for caregivers and HPs.

Patient reported experiences of using community rehabilitation and/or support services whilst living with a long-term neurological condition: a qualitative systematic review and meta-aggregation

Objectives: The objective of this study is to identify patient reported experiences of using community rehabilitation and/or support services whilst living with a long-term neurological condition, and perceptions of their impact on quality of life.Methods: Nine electronic databases were searched for peer-reviewed qualitative studies from 2005 to 2016, which met the inclusion criteria. Critical appraisal, data extraction, and quality assessment of 37 included papers were performed by three reviewers. One hundred and one findings were extracted. Meta-aggregation was used to synthesize findings.Findings: Seven 'synthesized findings' [SF] were produced: Interactions with some professionals provide active participation, choice, confidence and autonomy [SF1]; Interactions with some professionals are disempowering and depersonalized [SF2]; Effective communication, specialist knowledge and an individualized approach to information provision is needed [SF3]; Indicators of success vary and may not be clear [SF4]; Informal support from family/friends is valued [SF5]; Opportunities for peer support/social interaction is valued [SF6]; Coordination required to ensure continuity during transition to community [SF7].Conclusion: Patient reported experiences identified common factors associated with process quality (respect, choice, autonomy, information provision, communication) and activities of patient centered care (personalized care, shared decision-making, self-management support) despite heterogeneity of neurological conditions, service configurations, and geographical location. These factors impact quality of life.Implications for RehabilitationPatient reported experiences provide useful information about courtesy, respect, choice, autonomy, information provision, and communication.Outcomes of self-efficacy and self-management are important for people with stable and progressive long-term neurological conditions.Interactions with individual professionals influence engagement, self-efficacy, and self-management for people with long-term neurological conditions.Training for health and social care professionals should develop the advanced communication skills and behavior required to facilitate self-efficacy and self-management.

Experiences of UK health-care services for people with Multiple Sclerosis: a systematic narrative review

BACKGROUND

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, degenerative condition with an estimated UK prevalence of 100 000. Contact with health-care services is frequent and long-term; however, little research has investigated the experiences of health care for MS in the UK.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this systematic narrative review was to critically review qualitative studies reporting patients' experiences of health-care services in the UK.

SEARCH STRATEGY

EMBASE, CINAHL, Medline, psychINFO and MS Society databases were searched with no date restrictions using search terms denoting 'Multiple Sclerosis', 'health-care services', 'patient', 'experience' and 'qualitative research'. Snowballing and hand searching of journals were used.

INCLUSION CRITERIA

Studies were included if they used qualitative methods of data collection and analysis to investigate adult patient's experiences of health-care services for MS in the UK.

DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS

Data were extracted independently and analysed jointly by two reviewers. Studies were appraised for the quality of evidence described using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme's qualitative tool. Due to the breadth of areas covered, the data were too heterogeneous for a synthesis and are presented as a narrative review.

MAIN RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Five studies were included. Studies primarily investigated diagnosis or palliative care. Themes of importance were the emotional experience of health care, continuity of care and access to services, and support from health-care professionals. Studies were mainly poor quality and focussed on a homogenous sample.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides the first review of the UK evidence base of experiences of health care for MS. Future research should investigate experiences of care after diagnosis in a more varied sample of participants.