Patient needs

Objectives: The purpose of this cross-sectional, qualitative study was to determine unmet educational needs, preferences, and barriers experienced by individuals with chronic illness and their caregivers. Methods: A survey containing fixed-choice selections and open-ended questions was sent to persons with cancer and other chronic diseases who had been seen within a large national private health system.

Patient involvement (shared decision making ) and caregiver involvement (family involvement, etc.) are mostly seen as different aspects of care, and efforts to integrate them are limited. This Open Forum posits that both approaches are critical and that caregiver involvement should always be considered during shared decision making, potentially as an integral component. The authors argue that the two approaches can overlap and work synergistically rather than antagonistically.

Background. Despite 30 years of research attention, discharge planning and district nurse (DN) referral remain problematic and few cancer-related publications exist. With shorter hospitalizations, discharged cancer patients and their carers may experience unmet needs for assessment, information and support. Although DN referral might enable patient/carer needs to be met, the DN role lacks clarity.

Aim. To investigate the needs of people with cancer, and their lay carers during discharge from hospital to home, and identify the role of DNs in meeting these needs.

Objective: To describe the number and types of problems mentioned by successfully contacted home-dwelling stroke patients and their carers, and nursing interventions applied.

Design: In this multicentre quantitative study in the Netherlands, stroke patients and carers received outreach nurse support consisting of three telephone contacts and one home visit within six months after discharge. Standardized checklists describing a wide range of potential problems were used to record problems and interventions.

Background: older patients are less likely to receive palliative care than younger patients. As patient and primary carer age correlate positively, patterns may be due to carer rather than patient age, and reflect better ability to obtain support among younger carers.

Objective: to investigate how both patient and carer age relate to palliative care use, controlling for relevant variables.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has focused on the longer term needs of 'new' stroke patients at fixed time intervals after the event, but neglected those of stroke patients who may have had the event many years earlier.

OBJECTIVE: To identify the long-term support needs of patients with prevalent stroke, and their carers identified from practice stroke registers.

DESIGN OF STUDY: Patients and their carers were invited to attend focus groups at the university, a nursing home or in the community.

Purpose: This study examined the association among caregiver labor force participation, employees' caregiving activities, and the amount and quality of care received by care recipients. Design and Methods:Telephone interviews were conducted with 478 adults who were employed full time and 705 nonemployed adults who provided care to a family member or friend aged 50 or older, identified through random sampling of California households.