Publications by authors named "Ann Paxton"
Article Synopsis
- The pandemic has increased the workload for hospital palliative care providers, highlighting the lack of data on specific end-of-life needs for COVID-19 patients.
- A study evaluated 434 COVID-19 deaths across five hospitals, revealing that the majority of patients were over 70 years old and many had contracted the virus from the community.
- The findings suggest that while most patients' dying status was recognized, improved advance care planning and quicker access to symptom management could enhance care quality and potentially optimize hospice resources.
Objectives: The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) indicate that palliative care patients are at high risk of delirium and should be screened for it using the short confusion assessment method (short CAM). This study aimed to assess the perceptions of the short CAM for delirium screening amongst health-care workers in specialist palliative care inpatient units (SPCUs) and to investigate its use as a screening instrument.
Methods: Patients in 5 SPCUs in the North East of England were screened for delirium using the short CAM and a staff survey assessed the acceptability of the short-CAM in this setting.