Purpose To provide evidence-based recommendations to oncology clinicians, patients, family and friend caregivers, and palliative care specialists to update the 2012 American Society of Clinical ...Oncology (ASCO) provisional clinical opinion (PCO) on the integration of palliative care into standard oncology care for all patients diagnosed with cancer. Methods ASCO convened an Expert Panel of members of the ASCO Ad Hoc Palliative Care Expert Panel to develop an update. The 2012 PCO was based on a review of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) by the National Cancer Institute Physicians Data Query and additional trials. The panel conducted an updated systematic review seeking randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, as well as secondary analyses of RCTs in the 2012 PCO, published from March 2010 to January 2016. Results The guideline update reflects changes in evidence since the previous guideline. Nine RCTs, one quasiexperimental trial, and five secondary analyses from RCTs in the 2012 PCO on providing palliative care services to patients with cancer and/or their caregivers, including family caregivers, were found to inform the update. Recommendations Inpatients and outpatients with advanced cancer should receive dedicated palliative care services, early in the disease course, concurrent with active treatment. Referral of patients to interdisciplinary palliative care teams is optimal, and services may complement existing programs. Providers may refer family and friend caregivers of patients with early or advanced cancer to palliative care services.
To characterize the primary ethical issue and contextual features of ethics consultation for patients aged 18–26 years based on setting (adult vs. pediatric).
A retrospective review of 965 ethics ...consultation notes to identify patients aged 18–26 years cared for in the pediatric or adult setting between January 1, 2016–December 31, 2020. We collected demographic information and used conceptual content analysis to identify the primary ethical issue and contextual features for each consult and analyzed these using descriptive statistics.
We identified 46 consults (30 adult and 16 pediatric) for 40 unique patients (28 adult and 12 pediatric). The median age was 19 years in the pediatric setting and 24 in the adult setting. Fifty-three percent were female, 95% non-Hispanic, 68% White, and 76% were inpatient. The primary ethical issue in the adult setting was Refusal of Recommended Treatment (20%), while the dominant contextual issue was Communication Disputes/Conflicts Between the Staff and Patient (23%). The primary ethical issue for the pediatric setting was Goals of Care (31%) and the dominant contextual feature was concerns for Quality of Life (31%).
The primary ethical issues and related contextual features this population experiences differ based on setting. Improved understanding of adolescent and young adult development, especially related to values formation, decision-making, and communication skills training may ameliorate some of these challenges. Referral patterns for this age group overall and particularly for patients on the ends of the spectrum and inpatients raise concerns for ethics consultation use. Further education about ethics services is recommended.
A significant change for patients and families during SARs-CoV-2 has been the restriction of visitors for hospitalized patients. We analyzed SARs-CoV-2 hospital visitation policies and found ...widespread variation in both development and content. This variation has the potential to engender inequity in access. We propose guidance for hospital visitation policies for this pandemic to protect, respect, and support patients, visitors, clinicians, and communities.
•The interpersonal connection formed with a surgeon is essential to trust; care paradigms should facilitate interpersonal connections.•Institutional and surgeon reputation, and observed surgeon ...collegial relationships influence trust formation.•Trust in a surgeon is perceived to have unique implications and importance, but trust overall operates similarly to other contexts.
Trust is crucial to the success of any personal or professional relationship. Literature on trust in the surgeon-patient relationship has been largely explored through quantitative methodologies, primarily examining why trust may or may not exist. We aimed to qualitatively elucidate the mechanisms of how trust develops between otolaryngologists and their patients.
Patients were recruited by surgery scheduling staff following an outpatient visit where a decision had been made to proceed with surgery at a tertiary academic medical center. We used qualitative realist thematic analysis of phone interviews to explore participants’ (n = 17) perceptions and conceptualization of trust formation within the surgeon-patient relationship.
Thematic analysis revealed three themes regarding trust formation in the surgeon-patient relationship: 1) Trust Across Various Contexts; 2) Impact of Prior Knowledge; and 3) Interpersonal Connection during the Clinical Encounter.
An interpersonal surgeon-patient connection is crucial to the formation of trust. Trust is also influenced by surgeon and institutional reputation and witnessed surgeon interactions with the healthcare team.
Patients perceive trust in a surgeon as carrying unique importance. To optimize conditions for trust development in this context, surgical care paradigms should promote meaningful preoperative interpersonal surgeon-patient relationships and positive surgeon and institutional reputations.
Trust is an essential element of an effective physician-patient relationship. There is limited literature examining trust between trainees and patients in the surgical setting. The goal of this study ...was to investigate how otolaryngology patients perceive trust in trainees during delivery of surgical care.
We extracted trainee-specific data from a larger, qualitative interview study examining trust in the surgeon-patient relationship. We then used realist thematic analysis to explore preoperative otolaryngology patients’ perceptions of trust in trainees during delivery of surgical care.
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor, MI, a tertiary academic medical center.
Using convenience sampling, adults 18 years or older scheduled to undergo elective otolaryngologic surgery between February and June 2019 were invited, and 12 agreed to participate in the study.
All participants (n = 12) self-identified as White/Caucasian with a mean age of 60 years (range, 28-82). Participants were 50% (n = 6) female and 50% (n = 6) male. Thematic analysis of participants’ perspectives about trust in trainees during delivery of surgical care revealed 3 themes. Trust in trainees is conditional based on (i) level of trainee involvement; (ii) trust in the attending surgeon; and, (iii) trust in the institution.
Trust in trainees during delivery of surgical care is conditional on types of tasks trainees perform, bounded by trust in their attending surgeon, and positively influenced by institutional trust. Trainees and surgical educators must look to innovative methods to engender trust more efficiently in the clinic and immediate pre-operative setting. Such approaches can have a positive impact on patient outcomes, facilitate stronger trainee-attending interpersonal relationships, and empower surgeons to practice the professional values integral to surgical care.
We sought to examine whether sociodemographic differences, such as race and socioeconomic status, existed between patients in the PICU, pediatric cardiothoracic ICU (PCTU), and NICU who were ...identified as having ethical issues during interprofessional ethics rounds and all other patients admitted to these units and to characterize the primary ethical issues identified in this context.
We compared sociodemographic factors among patients admitted to a quaternary academic children's hospital between January 2017 and December 2018 who were identified as having ethical issues during PICU, PCTU, and NICU interprofessional ethics rounds (
= 122) with those of all other patients admitted to these units (
= 4971). χ
tests or Fisher's exact tests, Mann-Whitney
tests, and a multivariable logistic regression analysis were performed.
With bivariate analyses, we detected significant differences by race, insurance type, and ventilator dependence, but no significant differences between the 2 groups existed on the basis of sex, ethnicity, religion, primary language, age, or a socioeconomic status metric. After we adjusted for confounders using a multivariable logistic regression analysis, only patients who were ventilator dependent were at significantly higher odds (odds ratio = 5.78; confidence interval = 3.69-9.04;
< .001) of being identified as having ethical issues. Goals of care was the most frequent ethical issue (44%).
Except for ventilator dependence, patients with ethical issues during PICU, PCTU, and NICU interprofessional ethics rounds are demographically similar to overall patients admitted in these units. Future research should be used to assess whether proactive rounds impact the timing of ethics consultation requests as well as to determine if interprofessional ethics rounds influence volume and acuity in formal ethics consultation practices.
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