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End of life care Resources

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The Essential Elements of Spirituality in the End-of-Life Care

Primary Author: Katrina M. Scott, MDiv, BCC, Massachusetts General Hospital

The National Consensus Projects Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care, published in 2004, defines eight domains of care essential to palliative care clinical practice. The National Quality Forums 2006 document, A National Framework and Preferred Practices for Palliative and Hospice Care Quality: A Consensus Report, which is based on the Guidelines, identifies 38 evidence-based preferred practices for palliative care. This article demonstrates how the Guidelines and Preferred Practices may be operationalized in practice, focusing specifically on Domain 5 of the Guidelines, Spiritual, Religious and Existential Aspects of Care, which incorporates many pertinent aspects of hospice and palliative care related to addressing the spiritual needs of the dying patient and his or her family. In particular, the article addresses methods for assessing the need for spiritual care; methods for communicating with the patient and family about the need for spiritual care; the role of the spiritual adviser on the interdisciplinary palliative care team; the advantages of including certified chaplains on the palliative team; the need for sensitivity toward culture and religious diversity in administering spiritual care; the need for specialized palliative care spiritual advisors to build relationships with community clergy; and more.

Date Last Modified 09/01/2008 Article, Clinical practice guidelines

Evidence-Based Case Review: Addressing the religious and spiritual needs of dying patients

Primary Author: Daniel P. Sulmasy, The John J Conley Department of Ethics St Vincent's, Manhattan

Article from the Western Journal of Medicine (Volume 175) offering a review of literature about the spiritual needs of a patient at the end of life, with a focus on physician-patient communication.

Date Last Modified 10/01/2001 Article, Case example/study

An Exploratory Study of Spiritual Care at the End of Life

Primary Author: Timothy P. Daaleman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Article from the Annals of Family Medicine describing a qualitative research study into how spiritual care is perceived and delivered at the end of life. The authors concluded that "Clinicians and other health care workers consider spiritual care at the end of life as a series of highly fluid interpersonal processes ... rather than a set of prescribed and proscribed roles".

Date Last Modified 09/01/2008 Article

Frank Ostaseski: Compassionate End-of-Life Care

Primary Author: Diane Rehm, WAMU 88.5 FM

60-minute interview from the Diane Rehm Show on National Public Radio. Provided as streaming audio through the RealPlayer.

"A founder of the nation's first Buddhist hospice talks about the practice of mindful, compassionate care of the dying. Frank Ostaseski highlights the lessons learned near death that might encourage living fully."

Date Last Modified 06/03/2005 Audio file (MP3, etc.)

Geriatrics, Palliative Care & Interprofessional Teamwork Curriculum

Primary Author: VISN 3 Geriatric Research, Education & Clinical Center (GRECC)

Complete curriculum for Geriatrics, Palliative Care, and Interprofessional Teamwork. Includes modules on Psychosocial Issues at End of Life, and Death, Dying and Bereavement. GRECC is part of the Veterans Health Administration.

Date Last Modified Course curriculum