Research literacy is now a requirement for Board-Certified chaplains in the US and a growing field in the UK. This reader gives an overview and introduction to the field of healthcare chaplaincy research. The 21 carefully chosen articles in this book illustrate techniques critical to chaplaincy research: case studies; qualitative research; cross-sectional and longitudinal quantitative research, and randomized clinical trials. The selected articles also address wide-ranging topics in chaplaincy research for a comprehensive overview of the field. To help readers engage with the research, each article includes a discussion guide highlighting crucial content, as well as important background information and implications for further research. This book is the perfect primary text for healthcare chaplaincy research courses, bringing together key articles from peer-reviewed journals in one student-friendly format.

Nearly half of people at the end of life will receive hospice care, but few psychologists, nurses, physicians, chaplains, and hospice workers have been trained specifically to recognize and address the psychological, social, and emotional issues that may arise in patients who are dying. Patients in the midst of advanced terminal illness may experience a variety of distressing emotions, and may feel anxious, frightened, regretful, or desperate. This guide was created specifically to guide helping professionals of all kinds through the process of working through patients' psychological issues to allow them peace and comfort in their final moments.

The Helping Professional's Guide to End-of-Life Care clarifies the spiritual and emotional care that patients need and presents an evidence-based approach integrating cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), transpersonal psychotherapy, hypnosis, mindfulness, and guided imagery to help patients manage emotional distress at the end of life. Through case conceptualizations and detailed treatment planning guidance, readers learn to formulate comprehensive assessment and treatment plans for patients and gain skills that will help them manage the emotional intensity of this work. This secular, professional treatment model can be applied to patients of any religious or spiritual background. The book also addresses integrating the patient's therapeutic team with the medical team, addressing the emotional needs of friends and family of the dying, crisis intervention for suicidal patients, working with clients on psychotropic medications, and how helping professionals can manage their own emotions to become more effective clinicians.

Palliative care is an essential element of our health care system and becoming increasingly significant amidst an aging society and organizations struggling to provide both compassionate and cost effective care. Palliative care is also characterized by a strong interdisciplinary approach. Nurses are at the center of the palliative care team across settings and populations. The second volume in the HPNA Palliative Nursing Series, Physical Aspects of Care: Pain, Nausea and Vomiting, Fatigue and Bowel Management, provides an overview of the principles of symptom assessment and management for symptoms including: pain, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, obstruction, and ascites. The content of the concise, clinically-focused volumes in the HPNA series prepares nurses for certification exams as well as quick-reference in daily practice. Plentiful tables, figures, and practical tools such as assessment instruments, pharmacology tables, and patient teaching points make these volumes useful resources for nurses.

The first volume in the HPNA Palliative Nursing Series, Structure and Processes of Care provides an overview of palliative nursing care, reviews National Consensus Project guidelines, and offers tools for initiating and maintaining palliative care programs. The content of the concise, clinically-focused volumes in the HPNA series prepares nurses for certification exams as well as quick-reference in daily practice. Plentiful tables, figures, and practical tools such as assessment instruments, pharmacology tables, and patient teaching points make these volumes useful resources for nurses.

The family are intimately involved in the care of the dying and themselves require support through their experience of both palliative care and bereavement. This volume describes a comprehensive model of family care and how to go about it - an approach which is new, preventive, cost effective and with proven benefits to the bereaved.;The book has been designed rather like a therapy manual, providing a step-by-step approach to assessment and intervention. Its rich illustration through many clinical examples brings the process of therapy alive for the reader, anticipating the common challenges that arise and describing how the therapist might respond. Families are recognised throughout as a central social unit, pivotal to the success of palliative care. This title should be of use to doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, pastoral care workers, psychiatrists and other allied health professionals who work in caring for the dying and for their bereaved relatives. Based soundly on a decade of internationally regarded research, this book will alter the direction of future medical practice and is destined to become a classic in its field.

Patients with advanced cancer may develop a number of clinical complications related to tumor progression or a variety of aggressive treatments. The majority of these patients are elderly, often with multiple co-morbidities that require appropriate assessment and management. In the palliative stage of their disease, patients undergo a progressive transition from active acute care to community-based hospice care. This transition requires modification in the diagnostic tests, monitoring procedures and pharmacological treatments to adjust them to the palliative and short-term nature of the care. Internal Medicine Issues in Palliative Cancer Care looks at internal medicine through a prognosis-based framework and provides a practical approach to maximizing comfort and quality of life while minimizing aggressive investigations and therapies for patients with life-limiting disease. Forty-six common internal medicine conditions are organized into nine clinical categories: pulmonary, cardiovascular, nephrologic and metabolic, gastrointestinal, hematologic, infectious, endocrine, rheumatologic, and neuro-psychiatric. This evidence-based resource is ideal for educating clinicians delivering palliative care to cancer patients in acute care facilities about complex internal medicine problems, decision-making regarding diagnostics and therapeutics which require a good understanding of state-of-the-art internal medicine and palliative care principles.

The growing geriatric population in the United States has created an increasing need for palliative medicine services across the range of medical and surgical specialties. Yet, palliative medicine lacks the resources to carry such a workload itself. Geriatric Palliative Care addresses this need by encouraging individual specialties to "own" the management of elderly with the same vigor as they "own" other key management competencies within their specialty. This clinically focused and highly practical handbook, which compliments the more comprehensive text Geriatric Palliative Care by Sean Morrison and Diane Meier (Oxford University Press, 2003), encourages this process of learning and ownership across many medical specialties. Designed to be readable and easily accessible to a range of health care providers, Geriatric Palliative Care outlines specific strategies for caring for specific palliative care issues common in elderly patients. The handbook also provides evidence based advice for helping patients, relatives, and staff cope with such issues as polypharmacy, dementia and consent, multiple pathologies, home care, elderly caregivers, and supporting the elderly in the place where they would like to be.

Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or motor neurone disease) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that can cause profound suffering for both the patient and their family. Whilst new treatments for ALS are being developed, these are not curative and offer only the potential to slow its progression. Palliative care must therefore be integral to the clinical approach to the disease. Palliative Care in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: From diagnosis to bereavement reflects the wide scope of this care; it must cover not just the terminal phase, but support the patient and their family from the onset of the disease. Both the multidisciplinary palliative care team and the neurology team are essential in providing a high standard of care and allowing quality of life (both patient and carer) to be maintained. Clear guidelines are provided to address care throughout the disease process. Control of symptoms is covered alongside the psychosocial care of patients and their families. Case studies are used to emphasise the complexity of the care needs and involvement of the patient and family, culminating in discussion of bereavement. Different models of care are explored, and this new edition utilizes the increase in both the evidence-base and available literature on the subject. New topics discussed include complementary therapies, personal and family experiences of ALS, new genetics research, and updated guidelines for patient care, to ensure this new edition remains the essential guide to palliative care in ALS.

Over the last thirty years, the concern of Pain Medicine practitioners about the potential for their patients to develop a dependence on opioids has left opioid therapy as a largely underutilized treatment. While there is no simple answer to chronic pain, opioids remain the only class of drugs capable of providing relief to patients experiencing serious pain. Opioid Therapy in the 21st Century, Second Edition fills a dearth of clinical knowledge about analgesics to aid practitioners in weighing the risks versus the benefits of opioid therapy for their chronic pain patients. Part of the Oxford American Pain Library, this concise guide serves as a practical, user-friendly reference for physicians across the range of primary care and medical specialties. It includes an overview of appropriate clinical applications of opioids, covering such topics as opioid pharmacology, route selection, and individualization of therapy, as well as strategies for managing and mitigating the risk of abuse, addiction, and diversion. There are also special sections dedicated to the unique needs of pediatric, geriatric, and palliative care patient populations. This second edition discusses opioids approved for use since publication of the first edition, such as Butrans (buprenorphine patch); fentanyl patch and nasal spray; abuse resistant version of Oxycontin; and Embeda (morphine sulfate). Approved indications for older opioids as well as clinical trial information have also been updated.

Participatory research is a relatively new method of researching practice especially within palliative care. It differs from other methodologies in that there is an expectation of action within the research process. The values that underpin participatory research are collaboration, empowerment, and reflection. In the current climate of collaboration and working with people in healthcare, participatory research methods are gaining increasing interest when there is a desire to bring about change. Organisational change is becoming an important focus as we look at ways of not only reducing costs but at the same time improving quality of care. While palliative care puts the patient and family at the centre, Participatory Research in Palliative Care discusses a new research methodology that puts practitioners at the heart of the research process as collaborators who work together with researchers to resolve problems in practice. Divided into three sections, it provides theoretical groundings of action research, a greater focus on exemplars from studies within palliative care, and discusses prominent issues when using such a methodology. All three sections are illustrated by an action research study undertaken by the author within a palliative care setting. Participatory Research in Palliative Care is written by international, multi-disciplinary authors who explore a collaborative approach to embark on research. It will appeal to health and social care professionals, academics undertaking research within palliative care, and the management of organisations where people with end of life care needs are cared for, including long-term care homes.

Grief is a very individual experience and it can impact all aspects of a person's life. Parents and Bereavement: A Personal and Professional Exploration of Grief brings together latest research and practice from the pioneering children and young adults' hospice - Helen and Douglas House, alongside the personal experience of a parent. The book includes information on a range of challenges faced by parents, including supporting surviving children, making challenging decisions about subsequent pregnancies, managing the impact of grief on relationships, and facing birthdays and anniversaries. It discusses both, the theories and the day-to-day experience of grief, and what might make a difference to how people manage it. This will be an invaluable resource for professionals involved in supporting families with end of life care and bereavement issues, including palliative care professionals, counsellors, and social workers. Parents and Bereavement will also help parents, family, and friends to understand and support each other through such loss.

This updated edition carries on the tradition of providing sound and practical guidance for new and experienced practitioners on all aspects of food and nourishment for ageing adults. Whether residing at home, in assisted living or in a nursing facility, older adults have unique nutrition needs. Like the previous edition, this hands-on reference encompasses the total perspective on person-driven nutrition care of older adults, from nutrition and disease states to regulatory compliance in health care settings. Among the many timely updates addressed in this edition are: Strategies for implementing the updated Nutrition Care Process. Understanding and developing systems to implement quality assurance and performance improvement. Changes in Medicare and health-care reform resulting from the Affordable Care Act are addressed. A new section on emergency preparedness - and an important addition that reinforces the need for practitioners to develop a plan for maintaining care during an emergency or disaster.

Riveting in their emotional clarity and utterly jargon free, these 30 stories from real life penetrate how we grieve and how we can help those who grieve- whether the griever is oneself, someone we care about, or a client or patient. Lynne Dale Halamish, an internationally respected grief counsellor with more than 20 years' experience, and Doron Hermoni, a family physician, researcher, and educator, present vignettes from practice that show how death- lingering, unexpected, violent, or self-inflicted- and the loss of a relationship- to oneself or with a child, sibling, parent, mate, grandparent, or friend- give life to grief, together with the process by which each person fully encounters his or her grief. Each story is no more than two or three pages, and the authors follow each one with a short summary of its teachings and a selection of annotated recent references for those who wish to read more about a topic. Looked at in relief, the stories reveal a master grief counsellor at work.

Improving care for the patients who are in the last phase of their lives has been a field that most health care providers have struggled with during last few years. Having worked with hundreds of providers throughout the country, these experienced authors know what providers need when it comes to implementing a quality improvement project. This guide will provide user-friendly, step-by-step instructions on how to implement a quality improvement project in the full range of care settings. The instructions will be brought to life with specific examples from actual successful projects and key information on the best practices in the industry. Readers will also be pointed to resources available online and elsewhere, with information on how to access them. The guide will be written in an informal, maximally helpful style, with checklists, tables, and boxed information. Answering 80% of the questions in less than half the space, The Common Sense Guide is the perfect portable companion to Dr. Lynn's desk reference, Improving Care for the End of Life. The book will be of great interest to all health care professionals involved in the care of those with serious chronic illness -- doctors, nurses, social workers, chaplains, clinic administrators, quality improvement experts, and so forth.

Now fully revised and in its fourth edition, the Oxford Handbook of Oncology has been the essential go-to guide for students and practitioners in oncology for over a decade. The scientific basis and diagnosis of cancers is covered, as well as drugs, biomarkers, and the presentation and psychosocial aspects of oncology. Concise, practical, and comprehensive, there is no better companion for both common conditions and challenging emergencies. The field of oncology has surged forward since the last edition was published and the Oxford Handbook of Oncology has been fully revised and updated to reflect these recent advances so you can be sure that the vital information you need is in your hands. This handbook incorporates changes such as the understanding of the science of cancer, novel therapies in breast, lung, renal, and melanoma, molecular sub-classification of common solid cancers, personalized therapy approaches, new agents in hard to treat cancers, the benefits of new technologies in radiotherapy, and the emerging data on the importance of the immune response. Written by experts in the field to ensure that it is grounded in real life clinical practice, this handbook provides a concise guide to all aspects of oncology for all students, nurses, and junior faculty responsible for the care of cancer patients, while also providing further reading and highlighting areas of controversy for those who need a more detailed understanding.

Psychiatric, or psychosocial, palliative care has transformed palliative medicine. Palliation that neglects psychosocial dimensions of patient and family experience fails to meet contemporary standards of comprehensive palliative care. While a focus on somatic issues has sometimes overshadowed attention to psychological, existential, and spiritual end-of-life challenges, the past decade has seen an all encompassing, multi-disciplinary approach to care for the dying take hold. Written by internationally known psychiatry and palliative care experts, the Handbook of Psychiatry in Palliative Medicine is an essential reference for all providers of palliative care, including psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health counselors, oncologists, hospice workers, and social workers.

Within the last decade music therapists have developed their work with people who have life-threatening illnesses and with those who are dying. This book presents some of that work from music therapists working in different approaches, in different countries, showing how valuable the inclusion of music therapy in palliative care has already proved to be. It is important for the dying, or those with terminal illness, that approaches are used which integrate the physical, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions of their being. The contributors to this book emphasize the importance of working not only with the patient but with the ward situation, friends and family members. By offering patients the chance to be creative they become something other than patients - they become expressive beings, and there is an intimacy in music therapy that is important for those who are suffering. Many of the contributors write in their own personal voice, providing a particular insight which will be valuable not only to other music therapists seeking to enrich their own ways of working, but to all those involved in caring for the sick and the dying. Contributors describe their work with both children and adults living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other chronic degenerative diseases.

'Death is inevitable-none of us will escape it. Ending life with a terminal illness is a slow and rather lonely process. I am interested in the question of why some nurses choose to work in the field of palliative care. I am one who willingly stepped into the role of being with patients at their most vulnerable time -when death became inevitable. My nursing history has spanned fifty years, of which the last twenty were in palliative care of terminally ill and dying patients. What was it that influenced me to move from a curing model to comfort caring only? My work is an account of how I discovered palliative care nursing after thirty years in the acute-care setting. I migrated to Australia at the age of seventeen after the violence of World War II and the death of my father in a refugee camp. It seemed that taking on nursing was the best way to settle into a new life. I was happy with general nursing but had a feeling that there was more I could contribute to my patient care. My mother's unexpected death with cancer was responsible for showing the way. She died in the hospice unit of the hospital where I was employed. Sitting by her side showed me another aspect of nursing that attracted me to a career change. I transferred to the Hospice after mother died and remained there for twenty years. Naturally I wondered why this change of direction happened.' - Susan Bardy

Crossing Over provides a unique view of patients, families, and their caregivers in the face of incurable illness. Twenty richly-detailed narratives bring vividly to life the experiences of dying and bereavement, weaving together emotions, physical symptoms, spiritual concerns, and the stresses of family life, as well as the professional and personal challenges of providing hospice and palliative care. Drawing on a variety of qualitative research methods, including participant-observation, interviews, and journal keeping, the narratives depict the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells of daily life in patients' homes and in the palliative care unit. Crossing Over moves far beyond conventional case reports in medicine, which typically concentrate narrowly on symptoms and treatments, and beyond cliches about "dying with dignity." It provides intimate views of the anger and fear, tenderness and reconciliation, jealousy and love, unexpected courage and unshakable faith, social support and "falling through the cracks," which are all part of facing death in North American society. It provides an extraordinary portrait of the processes of giving and receiving hospice and palliative care in the real world, as opposed to idealized versions in many textbooks. This edition of Crossing Over has been thoroughly revised and updated to reflect changes in hospice and palliative care and in North American society since the first edition in 2000. Chief among these are the expansion of hospice and palliative care as a field, the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the wider availability of medical aid in dying, and a heightened awareness of how structural racism, classism, and other forms of discrimination shape individuals' and families' experiences right up to the close of life.