Palliative (farewell) culture in shared housing arrangements : The perspective of everyday nursing practice.

Background: Shared housing arrangements (SHA) are alternatives to long-term care facilities for care-dependent people. The collective perspective of nursing professionals working in SHA in dealing with death and dying is missing in recent studies. This study aimed to investigate the perspective of professionals concerning a palliative (farewell) culture in SHA.

Hygiene management for long-term ventilated persons in the home health care setting: a scoping review.

Background: Evidence and recommendations for hygiene management in home mechanical ventilation (HMV) are rare. In Germany, few regionally limited studies show poor hygiene management or a lack of its implementation. This scoping review of international literature identified the evidence in hygiene management for ventilated patients in the home care setting which has to be implemented for infection prevention and control.

Education on palliative care for Parkinson patients: development of the "Best care for people with late-stage Parkinson's disease" curriculum toolkit.

Background: Palliative care education among all stakeholders involved in the care of patients with late-stage Parkinson's disease is not adequate. In fact, there are many unmet educational and training needs as confirmed with a targeted, narrative literature review.

Methods: To address these needs we have developed the "Best Care for People with Late-Stage Parkinson's Disease" curriculum toolkit.

Palliative Care Challenges of Patients With Progressive Bulbar Palsy: A Retrospective Case Series of 14 Patients.

Progressive bulbar palsy (PBP) is a form of motoneuron disease and is widely classified as a subtype of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with a shorter time of survival and female predominance. In this retrospective case series of 14 patients with PBP, we focus on challenges in palliative care for this patient cohort, including symptom control, gastrostomy, non-invasive ventilation, and end-of-life phase. We show that rapid physical decline at the end of life is associated with bronchopulmonary infection and excessive oral secretion leading to a high level of symptom burden.

Advanced Nursing Practice in Austria under consideration of outcome measurement.

Background: Internationally, Advanced Practice Nurses (APN) are associated with improvements when measuring results in health care. Advanced Nursing Practice (ANP) refers to an extended nursing care with the aim of meeting the changing conditions in health care systems by providing evidence-based practice. APN outcomes are the endpoints of nursing interventions based on clinical experience, scientific knowledge, and practical skills.

Spiritual care as an integrated approach to palliative care for patients with neurodegenerative diseases and their caregivers: a literature review.

A literature review of the PubMed and Web of Science was conducted to identify peerreviewed publications on this topic. Additional search was carried out using Google Scholar. This article reflects on the current state of art in spiritual care as an integrated palliative care approach for patients with neurodegenerative diseases and their caregivers.

Telemedicine in Palliative Care: Implementation of New Technologies to Overcome Structural Challenges in the Care of Neurological Patients.

Telemedicine provides a possibility to deal with the scarcity of resources and money in the health care system. Palliative care has been suggested to be appropriate for an increasing number of patients with neurodegenerative disorders, but these patients often lack care from either palliative care or neurology. Since palliative care means a multidisciplinary approach it is meaningful to use palliative care structures as a basis.

A Pilgrim's Journey-When Parkinson's Disease Comes to an End in Nursing Homes.

Our interdisciplinary mixed-methods exploratory study was aimed at gaining empirical data on the medical and nursing demands of residents who are in a late stage of Parkinson Disease (PD) and are cared for in residential homes in Salzburg (Austria). In earlier studies it has been concluded that symptom burden of late stage PD patients is similar to or even higher compared with oncological patients. However, although all nine residents who took part in our study had severe limitations in performing their daily activities and experienced enormous restrictions in their mobility, they were quite content with their present living situations and did not show significant symptom burden.

Using tube feeding and levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel application in advanced Parkinson's disease.

The inability to achieve adequate nutrition and weight loss are serious problems for patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD). To ensure the optimal intake of nutrition and fluids and to administer levodopa-carbidopa intestinal gel (LCIG) (which patients need to increase or maintain their mobility as long as possible), different artificial feeding tubes can be used. Although percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tubes are frequently used in medical practice, there is little research that addresses key questions, including if and when to administer artificial fluids, nutrition and/or LCIG via tubes.

Implementing an advance care planning program in German nursing homes: results of an inter-regionally controlled intervention trial.

Background: Advance Care Planning (ACP) is a systematic approach to ensure that effective advance directives (ADs) are developed and respected. We studied the effects of implementing a regional ACP program in Germany.

Methods: In a prospective, inter-regionally controlled trial focusing on nursing homes (n/hs), we compared the number, relevance and validity of new ADs completed in the intervention region versus the control region.