Uncontrolled pain is one of the most feared and debilitating symptoms among cancer patients, and many suffer unnecessarily from suboptimal pain control. Cancer-related pain is often multidimensional and can affect all aspects of a patient's life. Hence, achieving adequate pain relief among cancer patients involves a proper assessment of psychosocial, spiritual, and physical pain issues, matched with an individualized treatment plan involving pharmacologic, nonpharmacologic, and procedural therapies when appropriate. Providing effective pain relief can help ease the overall burden of disease among oncology patients while helping them tolerate cancer-directed therapies and achieve the most optimal quality of life throughout all phases of the disease continuum. In this review, the authors will discuss the syndromes, assessment of, and treatment for cancer-related pain in the outpatient setting.
Background: Although palliative care is recognized as an important component of medical school curricula, the content and structure of education in the field is variable and often lacks outpatient exposure. We aimed to develop and implement a palliative care clinical elective for fourth-year medical students incorporating both inpatient and outpatient learning. Methods: Fourteen medical students participated in a palliative care elective which included 2 weeks on an inpatient consult service and 1 week of outpatient clinic and home hospice visits. The elective was evaluated using a focus group and previously validated surveys assessing self-rated competency and attitudes toward caring for palliative care patients. Data were analyzed using paired t tests to compare survey response means before and after the elective. Results: Of the 14 participating students, 7 completed both the pre- and postelective surveys. Significant improvements in self-rated competency were seen in pain and symptom management ( P < .001), communication ( P < .001), and advance care planning ( P < .01). Survey results also showed improvement in attitudes toward caring for dying patients ( P < .001), with lower scores at the end of the elective suggesting reduced emotional distress. Although the outpatient component was hypothesized to be a major benefit of the curriculum, qualitative data revealed the most highly valued component to be direct observation and feedback during inpatient time. Conclusion: Given the highlighted importance of direct observation and feedback as a unique and powerful learning experience, future work should be targeted toward enhancing the quality and timeliness of feedback delivered by the palliative care interdisciplinary team.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.