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Ethics, organization and policy

Section edited by Jan Schildmann

This section considers submissions that focus on the development, outcomes or discussion of ethical issues and policies within the practice of palliative care and medicine.

Page 1 of 2

  1. To be able to provide high-quality palliative care, there need to be a number of organizational structures available in the nursing homes. It is unclear to what extent such structures are actually present in n...

    Authors: E. Honinx, L. Van den Block, R. Piers, B. D. Onwuteaka-Philipsen, S. Payne, K. Szczerbińska, G. Gambassi, M. Kylänen, L. Deliens and T. Smets

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2021 20:131

    Content type: Research article

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  2. To date, the establishment and development of palliative day-care clinics and day hospices in Germany have been completely unsystematic. Research is needed to gain insight into these services and to ensure the...

    Authors: Franziska A. Herbst, Stephanie Stiel, Kathrin Damm, Lea de Jong, Jona T. Stahmeyer and Nils Schneider

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2021 20:94

    Content type: Study protocol

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  3. Population ageing, an emphasis on home-based care of palliative patients and policies aimed at prolonging participation in the labour market are placing a growing demand on working family caregivers. This stud...

    Authors: Femmy M. Bijnsdorp, Bregje D. Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Cécile R.L. Boot, Allard J. van der Beek, Hanna T. Klop and H. Roeline W. Pasman

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2021 20:93

    Content type: Research article

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  4. Palliative care (PC) development cannot only be assessed from a specialized provision perspective. Recently, PC integration into other health systems has been identified as a component of specialized developme...

    Authors: Natalia Arias-Casais, Eduardo Garralda, Miguel Antonio Sánchez-Cárdenas, John Y. Rhee and Carlos Centeno

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2021 20:36

    Content type: Research article

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  5. One of the strategies to promote the quality of palliative care in non-specialised settings is the appointment of palliative care nurse champions. It is unclear what the most effective model to implement the c...

    Authors: Marijanne Engel, Lia van Zuylen, Andrée van der Ark and Agnes van der Heide

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2021 20:34

    Content type: Research article

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  6. Serious adverse event reporting guidelines have largely been developed for pharmaceutical trials. There is evidence that serious adverse events, such as psychological distress, can also occur in non-pharmaceut...

    Authors: Lesley Dunleavy, Danni Collingridge Moore, Ida Korfage, Sheila Payne, Catherine Walshe and Nancy Preston

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2021 20:19

    Content type: Review

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  7. Observational studies investigating risk factors in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have not considered the confounding effects of advanced care planning, such that a valid picture of risk for elderly, fra...

    Authors: Sam Straw, Melanie McGinlay, Michael Drozd, Thomas A. Slater, Alice Cowley, Stephe Kamalathasan, Nicholas Maxwell, Rory A. Bird, Aaron O. Koshy, Milos Prica, Peysh A. Patel, Samuel D. Relton, John Gierula, Richard M. Cubbon, Mark T. Kearney and Klaus K. Witte

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2021 20:10

    Content type: Research article

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  8. Patient participation is a key foundation of advance care planning (ACP). However, a patient himself/herself may be left out from sensitive conversations such as end-of-life (EOL) care discussions. The objecti...

    Authors: Akiko Abe, Masato Kobayashi, Takashi Kohno, Mari Takeuchi, Saori Hashiguchi, Masaru Mimura and Daisuke Fujisawa

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2021 20:6

    Content type: Research article

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  9. The provision and quality of end-of-life care (EoLC) in Germany is inconsistent. Therefore, an evaluation of current EoLC based on quality indicators is needed. This study aims to evaluate EoLC in Germany on t...

    Authors: Katharina van Baal, Sophie Schrader, Nils Schneider, Birgitt Wiese, Jona Theodor Stahmeyer, Sveja Eberhard, Siegfried Geyer, Stephanie Stiel and Kambiz Afshar

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:187

    Content type: Research article

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  10. It is not clear how lay people prioritize the various, sometimes conflicting, interests when they make surrogate medical decisions, especially in non-Western cultures. The extent such decisions are perspective...

    Authors: Muhammad M. Hammami, Areej Al Balkhi, Sophia S. De Padua and Kafa Abuhdeeb

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:137

    Content type: Research article

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  11. Current policies recommend integrating home care and palliative care to enable patients to remain at home and avoid unnecessary hospital admission and emergency department (ED) visits. The Italian health care ...

    Authors: Alberto Borraccino, Sara Campagna, Gianfranco Politano, Marco Dalmasso, Valerio Dimonte and Maria Michela Gianino

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:126

    Content type: Research article

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  12. Many older people wish to die at home. However, there is still a huge gap between the place where older adults wish to die and the place where they, in fact, do die. We aimed to assess the association between ...

    Authors: Kazuhiro Abe, Atsushi Miyawaki, Yasuki Kobayashi, Taeko Watanabe and Nanako Tamiya

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:121

    Content type: Research article

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  13. Palliative Care Day Services (PCDS) offer supportive care to people with advanced, progressive illness who may be approaching the end of life. Despite the growth of PCDS in recent years, evidence of their cost...

    Authors: Paul Mark Mitchell, Joanna Coast, Gareth Myring, Federico Ricciardi, Victoria Vickerstaff, Louise Jones, Shazia Zafar, Sarah Cudmore, Joanne Jordan, Laurie McKibben, Lisa Graham-Wisener, Anne M. Finucane, Alistair Hewison, Erna Haraldsdottir, Kevin Brazil and W. George Kernohan

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:119

    Content type: Research article

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  14. General Practitioners (GPs) are the main providers of primary palliative care (PPC). At the same time they are the main initiators of specialised palliative homecare (SPHC). In Germany, little is known about f...

    Authors: K. Stichling, M. Krause, B. Ditscheid, M. Hach, M. Jansky, M. Kaufmann, T. Lehmann, W. Meißner, F. Nauck, W. Schneider, S. Schulz, H. C. Vollmar, U. Wedding, J. Bleidorn and A. Freytag

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:117

    Content type: Research article

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  15. Many deaths in Norway occur in medical wards organized to provide curative treatment. Still, medical departments are obliged to meet the needs of patients at the end of life. Here, we analyse the electronic pa...

    Authors: Laila Hov, Oddgeir Synnes and Guri Aarseth

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:91

    Content type: Research article

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  16. The present study aimed to characterize factors associated with patients issued DNR orders during hospitalization who are discharged alive without any instruction orders by physicians regarding end-of-life tre...

    Authors: Tomoari Mori, Katsumi Mori, Eisuke Nakazawa, Seiji Bito, Yoshiyuki Takimoto and Akira Akabayashi

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:82

    Content type: Research article

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  17. Patients in the last phase of their lives often use many medications. Physicians tend to lack awareness that reviewing the usefulness of medication at the end of patients’ lives is important. The aim of this s...

    Authors: Bregje A. A. Huisman, Eric C. T. Geijteman, Marianne K. Dees, Noralie N. Schonewille, Margriet Wieles, Lia van Zuylen, Karolina M. Szadek and Agnes van der Heide

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:68

    Content type: Research article

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  19. Developing recommendations for how we deliver healthcare is often left to leading experts in a field. Findings from the Integrated Palliative Care in cancer and chronic conditions (InSup-C) study, which aimed ...

    Authors: Nancy Preston, Jeroen Hasselaar, Sean Hughes, Alex Kaley, Lisa Linge-Dahl, Ildiko Radvanyi, Phil Tubman, Karen Van Beek, Sandra Varey and Sheila Payne

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:54

    Content type: Research article

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  20. Volunteers play a significant role in supporting hospice and palliative care in Africa, but little is known about the types of volunteers, their motivations and roles in service delivery.

    Authors: Carolin Clara Loth, Eve Namisango, Richard Antony Powell, Katharina Henny Pabst, Mhoira Leng, Mohamed Hamada and Lukas Radbruch

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:48

    Content type: Research article

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  21. Patients in oncological and palliative care (PC) often have complex needs, which require a comprehensive treatment approach. The assessment of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) has been shown to improve identif...

    Authors: Natalia Radionova, Gerhild Becker, Regine Mayer-Steinacker, Deniz Gencer, Monika A. Rieger and Christine Preiser

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:45

    Content type: Research article

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  23. Since the introduction of the concept of advance care planning (ACP), many studies have been conducted exploring beneficial effects. These studies show a heterogeneity in clinical endpoints, which reflects div...

    Authors: Nienke Fleuren, Marja F. I. A. Depla, Daisy J. A. Janssen, Martijn Huisman and Cees M. P. M. Hertogh

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:27

    Content type: Research article

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  24. Hospitalisation during the last weeks of life when there is no medical need or desire to be there is distressing and expensive. This study sought palliative care initiatives which may avoid or shorten hospital...

    Authors: Ros Taylor, Jonathan Ellis, Wei Gao, Liz Searle, Kate Heaps, Robert Davies, Claire Hawksworth, Angela Garcia-Perez, Giles Colclough, Steven Walker and Bee Wee

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:24

    Content type: Research article

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  25. Decision-making in palliative care can be complex due to the uncertain prognosis and general fear surrounding decisions. Decision-making in palliative care may be influenced by spiritual and cultural beliefs o...

    Authors: Francisca Rego, Florbela Gonçalves, Susana Moutinho, Luísa Castro and Rui Nunes

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:22

    Content type: Research article

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  26. There has been increasing evidence and debate on palliative care research priorities and the international research agenda. To date, however, there is a lack of synthesis of this evidence, examining commonalit...

    Authors: Felicity Hasson, Emma Nicholson, Deborah Muldrew, Olufikayo Bamidele, Sheila Payne and Sonja McIlfatrick

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:16

    Content type: Research article

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  27. PaTz (palliative care at home) is a method to improve palliative care in the primary care setting in the Netherlands. PaTz has three basic principles: (1) local GPs and DNs meet at least six times per year to ...

    Authors: Ian Koper, H. Roeline W. Pasman, Bart P. M. Schweitzer, Greet van der Zweep, Gon Uyttewaal and Bregje D. Onwuteaka-Philipsen

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2020 19:10

    Content type: Research article

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  28. Global annual deaths are rising. It is essential to examine where future deaths may occur to facilitate decisions regarding future service provision and resource allocation.

    Authors: Anne M. Finucane, Anna E. Bone, Catherine J. Evans, Barbara Gomes, Richard Meade, Irene J. Higginson and Scott A. Murray

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2019 18:112

    Content type: Research article

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  29. “End of life” is a difficult topic of conversation in East Asian cultures, even among patients and doctors who share a good rapport. In 2016, the Hospice, Palliative Care, and Life-Sustaining Treatment Decisio...

    Authors: Ju Won Kim, Jung Yoon Choi, Won Jin Jang, Yoon Ji Choi, Youn Seon Choi, Sang Won Shin, Yeul Hong Kim and Kyong Hwa Park

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2019 18:84

    Content type: Research article

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  30. A decision to refrain from cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the case of cardiac arrest is recommended in terminally ill patients to avoid unnecessary suffering at time of death. The aim of this study was...

    Authors: Bogdan Sterpu, Pia Lindman and Linda Björkhem-Bergman

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2019 18:80

    Content type: Research article

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  31. Laws allowing assisted suicide and euthanasia have been implemented in many locations around the world but some individuals suffering with terminal illness receiving palliative care services are hastening deat...

    Authors: Sheri Mila Gerson, Amanda Bingley, Nancy Preston and Anne Grinyer

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2019 18:75

    Content type: Research article

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  32. Recognising and knowing how to manage ethical issues and moral dilemmas can be considered an ethical skill. In this study, ethics of care is used as a theoretical framework and as a regulatory criterion in the...

    Authors: Ludovica De Panfilis, Silvia Di Leo, Carlo Peruselli, Luca Ghirotto and Silvia Tanzi

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2019 18:70

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

  33. Health care providers’ perception of pediatric palliative care might negatively influence timely implementation. The aim of the study was to examine understanding of and attitudes towards pediatric palliative ...

    Authors: Eva De Clercq, Michael Rost, Milenko Rakic, Marc Ansari, Pierluigi Brazzola, Tenzin Wangmo and Bernice S. Elger

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2019 18:55

    Content type: Research article

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  34. Early start of palliative care improves the quality of life of eligible patients and their relatives. However, in hospital, patients who could benefit from palliative care are often not identified timely. The ...

    Authors: Isabelle Flierman, Ineke C. Nugteren, Rosanne van Seben, Bianca M. Buurman and Dick L. Willems

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2019 18:54

    Content type: Research article

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  35. Advance care planning (ACP) can offer benefits to patients and their families, especially when delivered in outpatient settings, but uptake remains low. Common barriers for health professionals include a perce...

    Authors: Hilary Miller, Janice Tan, Josephine M. Clayton, Anne Meller, Oshana Hermiz, Nicholas Zwar and Joel Rhee

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2019 18:25

    Content type: Research article

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  37. Since 2007, the German statutory health insurance covers Specialized Outpatient Palliative Care (SAPV). SAPV offers team-based home care for patients with advanced and progressive disease, complex symptoms and...

    Authors: Antje Freytag, Markus Krause, Anna Bauer, Bianka Ditscheid, Maximiliane Jansky, Sabine Krauss, Thomas Lehmann, Ursula Marschall, Friedemann Nauck, Werner Schneider, Kathleen Stichling, Horst Christian Vollmar, Ulrich Wedding and Winfried Meißner

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2019 18:12

    Content type: Study protocol

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  38. Despite access to quality care at the end-of-life (EOL) being considered a human right, it is not equitable, with many facing significant barriers. Most research examines access to EOL care for homogenous ‘nor...

    Authors: K. I. Stajduhar, A. Mollison, M. Giesbrecht, R. McNeil, B. Pauly, S. Reimer-Kirkham, N. Dosani, B. Wallace, G. Showler, C. Meagher, K. Kvakic, D. Gleave, T. Teal, C. Rose, C. Showler and K. Rounds

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2019 18:11

    Content type: Research article

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  39. Migrants seem to be underrepresented in palliative care in Germany. Access barriers and challenges in care remain unclear. We aimed to provide a comprehensive insight into palliative care for migrants, using e...

    Authors: Maximiliane Jansky, Sonja Owusu-Boakye and Friedemann Nauck

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2019 18:8

    Content type: Research article

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  40. For the year 2018, the French government plans a revision of bioethics laws, including certainly the recent Claeys-Leonetti law introducing the right to deep and continuous sedation at the request of palliativ...

    Authors: Claire Vitale, Alexandre de Nonneville, Marie Fichaux and Sebastien Salas

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2019 18:2

    Content type: Case report

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  41. Rapid effective responsiveness to patient needs is pivotal to high quality palliative care. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) people are susceptible to life-limiting illnesses at younger ages ...

    Authors: John A. Woods, Claire E. Johnson, Hanh T. Ngo, Judith M. Katzenellenbogen, Kevin Murray and Sandra C. Thompson

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2018 17:130

    Content type: Research article

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  42. In Germany, patients suffering from life-limiting conditions are eligible for specialized outpatient palliative care (SOPC). Evaluation of the quality of this service lacks currently integration of patient-rel...

    Authors: Katrin Kuss, Hannah Seipp, Dorothée Becker, Stefan Bösner, Antje Erler, Dania Gruber, Michaela Hach, Lisa R Ulrich and Jörg Haasenritter

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2018 17:111

    Content type: Study protocol

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  43. Norway has one of the lowest home death rates in Europe. However, it is the health authorities´ ambition to increase this by facilitating palliative care at home. The aim of this study was to achieve more insi...

    Authors: Britt Viola Danielsen, Anne Marit Sand, Jan Henrik Rosland and Oddvar Førland

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2018 17:95

    Content type: Research article

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  44. Advance care planning (ACP) is a continuous, dynamic process of reflection and dialogue between an individual, those close to them and their healthcare professionals, concerning the individual’s preferences an...

    Authors: Ruth Piers, Gwenda Albers, Joni Gilissen, Jan De Lepeleire, Jan Steyaert, Wouter Van Mechelen, Els Steeman, Let Dillen, Paul Vanden Berghe and Lieve Van den Block

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2018 17:88

    Content type: Research article

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  45. Home is a preferred place of death for many people; however, access to a home death may not be equitable. The impact of socioeconomic status on one’s ability to die at home has been documented, yet there remai...

    Authors: Joshua Wales, Allison M. Kurahashi and Amna Husain

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2018 17:87

    Content type: Research article

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  46. ACP involving a facilitated conversation with a health or care professional is more effective than document completion alone. In policy, there is an expectation that health and care professionals will provide ...

    Authors: Josie Dixon and Martin Knapp

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2018 17:78

    Content type: Research article

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  47. Only limited data are available concerning the diseases managed before death and hospital palliative care (HPC) use according to place of death in France. We therefore conducted an observational study based on...

    Authors: Claire Poulalhon, Laureen Rotelli-Bihet, Sébastien Moine, Anne Fagot-Campagna, Régis Aubry and Philippe Tuppin

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2018 17:75

    Content type: Research article

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  48. Health service administrators make decisions regarding how to best use limited resources to have the most significant impact. Service siting models are tools that can help in this capacity. Here we build on ou...

    Authors: V. A. Crooks, M. Giesbrecht, H. Castleden, N. Schuurman, M. Skinner and A. Williams

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2018 17:59

    Content type: Research article

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  49. Hospital costs and cost drivers in palliative care are poorly analysed. It remains unknown whether current German Diagnosis-Related Groups, mainly relying on main diagnosis or procedure, reproduce costs adequa...

    Authors: Matthias Vogl, Eva Schildmann, Reiner Leidl, Farina Hodiamont, Helen Kalies, Bernd Oliver Maier, Marcus Schlemmer, Susanne Roller and Claudia Bausewein

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2018 17:58

    Content type: Research article

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  50. On February 6th, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that competent adults suffering intolerably from a grievous and irremediable medical condition have the right to the assistance of a physician in ending...

    Authors: Patricia Hizo-Abes, Lauren Siegel and Gil Schreier

    Citation: BMC Palliative Care 2018 17:56

    Content type: Research article

    Published on:

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BMC Palliative Care

ISSN: 1472-684X

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