Development and preliminary validation of a scale to assess physicians' emotional distress intolerance in end-of-life care communication.

Context: End-of-life care (EOLC) communication is beneficial but underutilized, particularly in conditions with a variable course such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure (CHF). Physicians' emotional distress intolerance has been identified as a barrier to EOLC communication. However, studies of emotional distress intolerance in EOLC have largely relied on anecdotal reports, qualitative data, or observational studies of physician-patient communication.

My Life, My Way: A Quality Improvement Program to Increase Advance Care Planning in a Racially and Ethnically Diverse Patient Population.

Background: A multilevel quality improvement program was implemented at an urban community hospital, serving a racially and ethnically pluralistic patient population, to increase participation in advance care planning (ACP).

Measures: Number of eligible patients who completed an ACP form.

Intervention: Projects were implemented over the course of two years that targeted patients, health care providers, the organization, and the community.

Introduction to Hospice and Palliative Care.

Palliative care is a field of medicine that delivers patient-centered care for individuals and their families suffering from serious illness at all stages of the disease trajectory. It addresses the major priorities of relieving suffering, establishing goals of care, and managing physical symptoms while integrating the psychosocial, cultural, spiritual, and existential complexities of coping with chronic illness. This article discusses the role of palliative care in the health care system.

The perceived ethnic discrimination questionnaire--community version: validation in a multiethnic Asian sample.

This study evaluated the validity and reliability of the Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire-Community Version (PEDQ-CV) Lifetime Exposure scale in a multiethnic Asian sample (N = 509). The 34-item scale measures perceived interpersonal racial/ethnic discrimination and includes four subscales assessing different types of discrimination: Social Exclusion, Stigmatization, Discrimination at Work/School, and Threat/Aggression. The Lifetime Exposure scale demonstrated excellent reliability across the full group and in all major subgroups.

Approach to the adult patient with fever of unknown origin.

Fever of unknown origin (FUO) in adults is defined as a temperature higher than 38.3 degrees C (100.9 degrees F) that lasts for more than three weeks with no obvious source despite appropriate investigation.