The effects of guided imagery and hand massage on wellbeing and pain in palliative care: Evaluation of a pilot study.

Background: This study aims to measure the effect of guided imagery and hand massage on self-rated wellbeing and pain for palliative care patients.

Methods: This study adopted a quasi-experimental one-group pre-test post-test design. The sample consisted of n = 20 adult palliative care patients who received one session of guided imagery and hand massage.

Geriatricians' interest to learn bedside portable ultrasound (GEBUS) for application in the clinical practice and in education.

Background: Technological advances have allowed ultrasound machines to become portable, pocket-size aids to diagnosis and clinical examination. As technology becomes more available, physicians are challenged to educate themselves and new generations of health providers in the usage of bedside portable ultrasonography.

Objectives/design: The aim of this study was to survey a representative sample of geriatricians in South Carolina to evaluate their current knowledge about the use of ultrasound machines in the primary care of the elderly, to determine their willingness to adopt the technology and willingness to educate physicians and medical students, and to identify hurdles for the implementation in the clinical and educational environment.

Implementing a pain management program in a long-term care facility using a quality improvement approach.

Background: Pain constitutes a constant challenge facing staff and residents of skilled nursing facilities (SNF) and nursing homes (NH). Many SNF and NH have not adopted a uniform plan to assess and treat pain for their residents despite published literature that demonstrates that the implementation of scales improves detection and treatment of pain. The objective of this study was to analyze the baseline pain level in the institutionalized elderly, and then implement a standard pain scale for its assessment and evaluation, while simultaneously identifying challenges in adopting this standardized method.