Palliative medicine for the cancer and non-cancer patient

A model of treatment decision making when patients have advanced cancer: how do cancer treatment doctors and nurses contribute to the process?

“…Internationally, collaborative teamwork involving different disciplines in cancer treatment services is pragmatically promoted as an ideal model of care (Sainio et al 2001;Kite & Hicks 2005;Matsuyama et al 2006); however, there is a paucity of empirical research testing this assumption (McKinlay & McBain 2007). Non-surgical cancer treatment doctors including medical or radiation oncologists and clinical haematologists have a predominant role in the treatment decision-making process.…”

An integrated model of provision of palliative care to patients with cystic fibrosis

“…The palliative care ethos has spread from cancer to all diseases and from hospices to all clinical settings but there is a dearth of research on the palliative care needs of patients with CF and uncertainty about the best way of providing palliative care. 10,11 In our CF centre, we have developed an integrated model of palliative care whereby most care is provided by the CF team using a palliative care pathway but there is additional support from the specialist palliative care services. We report our experience of the palliative care of patients dying from CF in terms of the circumstances of death, lung transplantation status, specific symptoms and provision of palliative treatments.…”