PURPOSE: Given the emergence of a new profession called a palliative care aide, this study aims to develop the scope of its practice using the Delphi consensus method. METHODS: This study was participated by a panel of experts comprising 36 members who were involved in either hospice palliative care practice or making relevant policies. Through a four-step Delphi study, the feasibility of the duty, task and task element was examined. Among the results, items that scored over 4.0 out of 5.0 were selected. RESULTS: The analysis of the Delphi study suggested four job duties, 15 tasks and 46 task elements to be included in the practice scope for palliative care aides. CONCLUSION: This study defined the scope of practice for palliative care aides, which is expected to prevent any conflict or confusion regarding their job and to promote the quality of their service.
Consensus ; Delphi Technique ; Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing ; Hospices ; Job Description ; Methods* ; Palliative Care*

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of an instrument that measures spiritual needs of families of terminal cancer patients. METHODS: This methodological study was processed as follows: 1) The preliminary 26 items were developed based a conceptual framework of spiritual needs of families of patients with cancer. 2) The content was validated by an expert panel (Three nursing professors and five hospice nursing specialists). 3) The instrument was validated by a survey (n=111). 4) Twenty-six items were selected and used for the final version of the scale. RESULTS: Three factors were extracted through factor analysis: ‘relationship with God/Acceptance of dying’, ‘recovery of relationship/hope and peace’, and ‘meaning and purpose of life’. These factors explained 61.088% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha and Guttman split-half coefficient of the 26 items were 0.944 and 0.826 respectively. CONCLUSION: This scale was identified as a valid and reliable tool. Therefore, the scale is useful in assessing spiritual needs of families of terminal cancer patients in the field of hospice and palliative care.
Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing ; Hospices ; Humans ; Methods ; Nursing ; Palliative Care ; Reproducibility of Results* ; Spirituality ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: This methodological study was conducted to test the reliability and validity of an instrument that measures attitudes of advance directives (ADs) among nurses. METHODS: 1) Sixteen items related to attitudes in the English version of the Knowledge, Attitudinal, and Experiential Survey on Advance Directives (KAESAD) were forward/backward translated into Korean. 2) The content was validated by an expert panel (three nursing professors and eight hospice nursing specialists). 3) The preliminary 12 items were selected as a tool to assess the Korean version of Nurses' Attitudes towards Advance Directives (NAAD-K). 4) The instrument was validated by a survey (n=216). 5) It was confirmed to use the 12 items for the final version of the instrument. RESULTS: NAAD-K was shown to be valid in terms of factors, items and content. The three factors extracted from the factor analysis were named as follows: Caring for patients with an AD (factor 1), nurses' role in informing patients (factor 2) and patient right (factor 3). The three factors explained total variance 57.796%. Factor loadings of the 12 items ranged from 0.47 to 0.93. For the 12 items, Cronbach's alpha was 0.81, and Guttman split-half coefficient was 0.78. CONCLUSION: This instrument was identified to be applicable with satisfactory reliability and validity for further use in measuring nurses' attitudes towards ADs in hospice and palliative care.
Advance Directives ; Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing ; Hospices ; Humans ; Methods ; Nursing ; Palliative Care ; Patient Rights ; Reproducibility of Results

Value-based care model has been evolving to organize medical services around the patient and provide the full cycle of care for a medical condition. The full cycle of care model encompasses inpatient, outpatient, rehabilitation as well as supportive care such as palliative care and nutrition support. Cancer rehabilitation and palliative care have emerged as two important parts of value-based practice for oncology patients. More clinical evidence suggests that early intervention of oncology rehabilitation program and palliative care are likely to improve the patient outcome and reduce the overall medical cost for the patient and his or her family as well as for medical service providers. Although interest has been raised in Chinese oncologists, but effectiveness of incorporating these two services in clinical practices has not been adequately demonstrated. An understanding of scope of cancer rehabilitation and palliative care may help facilitate the integration of both into the oncology care continuum in efforts to improve patients' physical, psychological, cognitive, functional health and quality of life.
Humans ; Medical Oncology ; methods ; Neoplasms ; Palliative Care ; methods ; Quality of Life

Intractable pain from nonresectable or recurrent cancer of upper abdominal organs has been treated in many ways. We chose the method of 50% alcohol celiac plexus block for the pain relief. The results were as follows: 1) It is relatively simple, highly effective, and a less hazardous means of palliative therapy. 2) Satisfactory pain relief was seen in 11 cases (91.7%), excluding 1 case (8.3%) with no improvement in hospitalization state. We concluded this block is remarkably safe as well as effective and should be employed more frequently.
Celiac Plexus* ; Hospitalization ; Methods ; Pain, Intractable ; Palliative Care

In 1991, the author (H.Y.S.) reported the first case of self-expandable metallic stent (SEMS) placement in a patient with recurrent cancer after gastrojejunostomy. Since then SEMS placement has developed into a well-established method for the palliative treatment of malignant gastroduodenal obstruction. This year marks the 30th year the author has been implicated in the development of gastrointestinal SEMSs. Thus far, the author has developed successively a total of six generations of gastroduodenal SEMSs through trial and error over the years. In the present article, the author reviews his personal experience in developing gastroduodenal stents.
Family Characteristics ; Gastric Bypass ; Humans ; Methods ; Palliative Care ; Stents*

The establishment and development of volunteer team are very important in the whole process of palliative care. The concept and practice of palliative care have been developed in Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) since the end of 2012. Great progress has been made in different aspects. Volunteers play an extremely important role in the development of palliative care in PUMCH. The whole work began with the establishment of volunteer teams. This article introduces the process of the establishment and development of palliative care volunteer team in PUMCH, aiming to provide practical references for hospitals in mainland China to develop their own palliative care volunteer team.
China ; Hospitals ; statistics & numerical data ; Humans ; Palliative Care ; methods ; Volunteers

As one of the methods of palliative care, aromatherapy has been applied gradually in clinical nursing work in China in recent years. Through aromatherapy, terminal cancer patients can get not only relieves of physical symptoms, but also spiritual relaxation and peace, thus have improved quality of life at the end stage. In this paper, we report in detail about how aromatherapy was applied for symptom control in a cancer patient with unknown primary malignancy and multiple metastasis and its effects on the terminal life of this patient.
Aromatherapy ; methods ; Humans ; Neoplasms ; therapy ; Palliative Care ; methods ; Quality of Life ; Terminal Care ; methods

Fluid Therapy ; ethics ; methods ; Holistic Health ; Humans ; Palliative Care ; Patient-Centered Care ; Singapore ; Terminal Care ; ethics ; methods ; Withholding Treatment

Biliary obstruction due to advanced hepatic hilar malignancy is difficult to treat, both surgically and non-surgically, using endoscopic or percutaneous drainage. Since only about 10% to 20% of patients are eligible for resection of hepatic hilar malignancies, most patients receive palliative rather than curative treatment. Percutaneous palliation of advanced hepatic hilar malignancies can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Percutaneous bilateral metallic stent placement may be a reasonable option in patients with hilar malignancies to preserve the functional volume of the liver during the course of chemotherapy and to prevent procedure-related cholangitis of a contaminated undrained lobe. Percutaneous bilateral stent-in-stent placement using wide-mesh or open-cell design stents is a feasible and effective method of achieving bilateral drainage. Moreover, unilateral covered or uncovered metallic stent placement in the lobe with patent portal vein is safe and effective method for palliative treatment in patients with contralateral portal vein occlusion caused by hilar malignancies, obviating the need for bilateral stent placement in these patients.
Bile Ducts, Intrahepatic ; Cholangitis ; Drainage ; Drug Therapy ; Humans ; Liver ; Methods ; Palliative Care ; Portal Vein ; Stents