Bridges Palliative Care’s Post

#Navigating the care of terminally ill patients, especially when friends, well-wishers, and family members, including doctors, are involved, presents significant challenges for the palliative care team. Often, these individuals advocate for #aggressive #medical #interventions based on fluctuating parameters like blood pressure, glucose levels, protein, and electrolytes etc., despite the patient's need for comfort at the end of life. In #hospice settings, we encounter these scenarios daily, where the focus shifts from providing comfort to pursuing aggressive medical treatments due to the influence of friends and family, particularly those with medical backgrounds. This shift can create a barrier to aligning everyone with the patient's autonomy and comfort. One major obstacle is the perpetuation of #myths surrounding medications like morphine and other comforting treatments. Despite their efficacy in alleviating pain and discomfort, misconceptions about their use persist, often fueled by well-meaning but misinformed individuals. To address these challenges, the palliative care team must invest time in building trust and facilitating open #communication with the patient and their family. Education plays a crucial role in dispelling myths and #misconceptions about the end-of-life care and medications. Providing clear explanations about the goals of palliative care and the benefits of #prioritizing #comfort can help shift the focus away from aggressive medical interventions. Furthermore, involving a #multidisciplinary team comprising physicians, nurses, social workers, and counselors can provide comprehensive support to both the patient and their family. This team can offer emotional support, guidance, and practical assistance in navigating difficult decisions and managing conflicting perspectives. Encouraging #advance #care #planning discussions early in the disease trajectory empowers patients to express their wishes regarding end-of-life care, ensuring their autonomy is respected and honored. These conversations should involve all stakeholders, including family members and healthcare providers, to foster understanding and consensus regarding the patient's preferences. Ultimately, fostering a collaborative approach centered on the patient's comfort and autonomy is essential in #navigating complex end-of-life care situations in hospice settings, where the input of friends, family, and healthcare professionals can significantly influence #decision-making. Sparsh Hospice - Centre for Palliative Care

This is such an unfortunate situation in Tillsonburg and one that highlights the differences in how family doctors are recruited, supported, and onboarded into practices in Ontario. Tillsonburg is just outside my recruitment area so I felt helpless when the doctors planning to leave contacted me to ask for help finding replacements. They have also reached out to the neighbouring recruitment team in Woodstock. Family doctor recruitment is not managed provincially in Ontario. Each county/ town/ city has to create and fund this position themselves. In many cases the path to having a family doctor recruiter starts by a team of healthcare leaders advocating and pitching the municipality or health region for support. Tillsonburg is experiencing this drastic family doctor shortage without having a recruitment person in place to assist with finding and onboarding new doctors. When this is the case, it falls on volunteers within the medical community to manage the recruitment tasks. Having discussed this with the people in that volunteer role in London before our recruitment program started, they stated not having a recruitment lead here was making it hard for doctors to practice in this area. Recruitment leads have to continually fundraise from their OHT, hospitals, business community/ Chamber of Commerce, municipality, community foundations, developers, business leaders, etc to keep their programs going. They raise funds for their programs which includes their pay, travel, and materials and most also need funds for incentive money for newly-signed family doctors who are choosing to start practices where they can get financial relief from their student debt and moving costs. As different communities have different abilities to provide these funds, there is a disparity between areas with a recruiter and incentive funds and without. Tillsonburg has neither. *The physician recruiters of Ontario have self-organized into a group called Ontario Physician Recruitment Alliance and under the leadership of Jill Croteau, have created a job board with family doctor postings from across the province. (This is new so not all the areas have their postings up yet). www.opra.ca -The GTA does not have family doctor recruiters and this task is typically handled by clinic owners.

Transitional care approaches provide a missing link in the health care system. Learn how Extendicare and The Ottawa Hospital worked together to offer integrated care for seniors leaving the hospital: https://lnkd.in/gSAeUSHx

Enhancing patient satisfaction requires addressing both physical and mental health needs, as they are closely connected. In the article below, we explore how community paramedicine can deliver effective home care, highlighting the benefits for patients and healthcare providers alike. We also dive into the impact of home-based care, its various models, and how community paramedicine can make it mainstream. 👇👇👇 https://hubs.li/Q02LYv-J0

Transitional care approaches provide a missing link in the health care system. Learn how Extendicare and The Ottawa Hospital worked together to offer integrated care for seniors leaving the hospital: https://lnkd.in/gSAeUSHx

Health literacy plays a vital role in ensuring that patients and caregivers can make informed decisions about their healthcare options. Our aim during #HealthLiteracyMonth is to reaffirm our commitment to our partners in care and help increase understanding about the support home health and hospice care provides. Learn more at the links below. Home Health - https://nuvi.me/i4v117 Hospice - https://nuvi.me/11qlo9

Advocate Health at Home is dedicated to being Age Friendly, with a focus on providing exceptional care in the home setting. Recent literature emphasizes the significance of our work and its impact on patient care. A thought-provoking article in This Week on IHI highlights the drawbacks of prematurely labeling patients as "noncompliant." It cautions against rushing to judgement, emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of each patient's unique circumstances. The article underscores the importance of seeing patients in their own environment, understanding their routines, preferences, and relationships. This invaluable insight is crucial for delivering quality care. #AdvocateHealth #HomeCare #PatientCare #Healthcare #AgeFriendly #QualityCare

Improving EOL home care -what patient wants. Enriching quality of clinical EOL care and addressing successfully high burden of social determinants of the health -will increase comfort for patient/caregivers. Partnership between hospices/palliative care and community health systems ( ACO's, facilities, primary care and specialty care groups, hospitals) with support and understanding of payors/legislators-one way to address distress between utilization of resources and advanced chronic co-morbids. On this road to hope, success barriers are: worsening shortage of primary care/palliative care/hospice professionals.

💜 Compassion in Healthcare The dedication and hard work of NHS staff form the backbone of our healthcare system, yet the importance of compassion in neonatal and maternity services cannot be overstated. Compassion—actively understanding, engaging with, and acting to alleviate the suffering of others—deserves to be at the heart of healthcare culture. This thought-provoking article explores: ✅ How families of children with rare conditions remember individual acts of compassion, even when systemic support was lacking. ✅ The profound difference compassion made in end-of-life care & personal healthcare experiences. ✅ Practical examples, such as education to think about redesigning patient care around compassion. The takeaway? Compassionate engagement, values, systems and culture must be a guiding principle in healthcare—for patients and staff alike. #CompassionInHealthcare #PatientCare #CompassionateAction #NeonatalPsychology