Publications by authors named "Richard P Lee"

Infant and child nutrition practices are among the most critical determinants of infant health and breastfeeding is considered the gold standard of infant feeding. Despite extensive public health interventions to promote breastfeeding, its prevalence has decreased in recent years in Panama, particularly in urban settings. There has been a nearly 20% drop in breastfeeding in the 10 years leading to 2020.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Developments in the care of critically ill patients with severe burns have led to improved hospital survival, but long-term recovery may be impaired. The extent to which patient-centred outcomes are assessed and reported in studies in this population is unclear.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review to assess the outcomes reported in studies involving critically ill burns patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is disproportionately affecting older people and those with underlying comorbidities. Guidelines are needed to help clinicians make decisions regarding appropriate use of limited NHS critical care resources. In response to the pandemic, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published guidance that employs the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) in a decision-making flowchart to assist clinicians in assessing older individuals' suitability for critical care.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: In recent years, UK policy has increasingly recognised the importance of end-of-life care in dementia. While professional consensus on optimal palliative care in dementia has been reported, little is known about the perspectives of people with dementia and family carers.

Aim: To compare the views of people with dementia and family carers of people with dementia (current and recently bereaved) on optimal end-of-life care.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Evidence consistently shows that people with advanced dementia experience suboptimal end of life care compared to those with cancer; with increased hospitalisation, inadequate pain control and fewer palliative care interventions. Understanding the views of those service managers and frontline staff who organise and provide care is crucial in order to develop better end of life care for people with dementia.

Methods And Findings: Qualitative interviews and focus groups were conducted from 2013 to 2015 with 33 service managers and 54 staff involved in frontline care, including doctors, nurses, nursing and care home managers, service development leads, senior managers/directors, care assistants and senior care assistants/team leads.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To understand how end-of-life (EoL) care for people with dementia is currently commissioned (ie, contracted) and organised, with a view to informing the development of commissioning guidance for good-quality community-based EoL care in dementia.

Design: Mixed-methods study; narrative review and qualitative interviews.

Setting: 8 National Health Service (NHS) clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and five adult services across England.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Although fatigue is a common symptom for people with rheumatic diseases, limited support is available. This study explored the impact of written information about fatigue, focusing on a booklet, Fatigue and arthritis.

Methods: Thirteen patients with rheumatic disease and fatigue were recruited purposively from a rheumatology outpatient service.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Adopting principles of person-centred communication has been highlighted as one strategy to improve care of people living with dementia (PLWD) in health and social care settings. However, person-centred communication is interpreted and applied variably in different settings, and healthcare professionals' views about communicating with PLWD are under-explored. This study aimed to investigate medical students' views about the principles and applicability of a model of person centred communication - the Dementia Model of Effective Communication (DeMEC) - to clinical practice.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Given the profusion of illness-related information, in this article, we consider how talking about information seeking-and in particular Internet use-is difficult, not because it is necessarily a highly sensitive topic (though it may be), but rather due to the unusual and unfamiliar situation of talking about information seeking. Drawing on interviews conducted as part of a study on the educational needs of carers of people with rheumatoid arthritis, we compare three types of interview for understanding online information seeking: interviews (recall), researcher-led observation (joining participant at the computer), and diaries. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and discuss how changing interview questions and the form of interaction can help to produce different types of data, and potentially more meaningful insights.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Dementia, of all long term illnesses, accounts for the greatest chronic disease burden, and the number of people with age-related diseases like dementia is predicted to double by 2040. People with advanced dementia experience similar symptoms to those dying with cancer yet professional carers find prognostication difficult and struggle to meet palliative care needs, with physical symptoms undetected and untreated. While elements of good practice in this area have been identified in theory, the factors which enable such good practice to be implemented in real world practice need to be better understood.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Care of patients with dementia raises challenging ethical issues, including the use of deception in clinical practice. This study aimed to determine the extent to which medical students agree that ethical arguments for and against deceiving patients in general apply to patients with dementia.

Method: Qualitative study using six focus groups (n = 21) and 10 interviews (n = 10) with undergraduate students in years 1, 3 and 5 at a UK medical school.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Fellowship Examination for Intensive Care Medicine in Australian and New Zealand, first held in 1979, has undergone four distinct periods of development and change: * 1979-1996. Initiation and establishment of the exam as a relevant and comprehensive assessment process for a new specialty. * 1997-2001.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF