Portfolio use in postgraduate medical education: a systematic scoping review.

Background: Portfolios are increasingly commonplace in postgraduate medical education. However, poor understanding of and variations in their content, quality, and structure have hindered their use across different settings, thus dampening their efficacy.

Methods: This systematic scoping review on portfolios in postgraduate medical education utilized Krishna's Systematic Evidence Based Approach (SEBA).

Chinese medical teachers' cultural attitudes influence palliative care education: a qualitative study.

Background: China holds one fifth of the world's population and faces a rapidly aging society. In its ambition to reach a health care standard comparable to developed countries by 2030, the implementation of palliative care gains special importance. Until now, palliative care education in China is limited and disparate.

Assessing palliative care education in undergraduate medical students: translation and validation of the Self-Efficacy in Palliative Care and Thanatophobia Scales for Brazilian Portuguese.

Background: As the global population ages, palliative care is ever more essential to provide care for patients with incurable chronic conditions. However, in many countries, doctors are not prepared to care for dying patients. Palliative care education should be an urgent concern for all medical schools all around the world, including Latin America and Brazil.

Assessing mentoring: A scoping review of mentoring assessment tools in internal medicine between 1990 and 2019.

Background: Mentoring's success in enhancing a mentee's professional and personal development, and a host organisations' reputation has been called into question, amidst a lack of effective tools to evaluate mentoring relationships and guide oversight of mentoring programs. A scoping review is proposed to map available literature on mentoring assessment tools in Internal Medicine to guide design of new tools.

Objective: The review aims to explore how novice mentoring is assessed in Internal Medicine, including the domains assessed, and the strengths and limitations of the assessment methods.

A Systematic Scoping Review of Ethical Issues in Mentoring in Surgery.

Background: Mentoring is crucial to the growth and development of mentors, mentees, and host organisations. Yet, the process of mentoring in surgery is poorly understood and increasingly mired in ethical concerns that compromise the quality of mentorship and prevent mentors, mentees, and host organisations from maximising its full potential. A systematic scoping review was undertaken to map the ethical issues in surgical mentoring to enhance understanding, assessment, and guidance on ethical conduct.

A systematic scoping review of ethical issues in mentoring in internal medicine, family medicine and academic medicine.

Mentoring's role in medical education is threatened by the potential abuse of mentoring relationships. Particularly affected are mentoring relationships between senior clinicians and junior doctors which lie at the heart of mentoring. To better understand and address these concerns, a systematic scoping review into prevailing accounts of ethical issues and professional lapses in mentoring is undertaken.

A scoping review of mentor training programs in medicine between 1990 and 2017.

Effective mentoring enhances the personal and professional development of mentees and mentors, boosts the reputation of host organizations and improves patient outcomes. Much of this success hinges upon the mentor's ability to nurture personalized mentoring relationships and mentoring environments, provide effective feedback and render timely, responsive, appropriate, and personalized support. However, mentors are often untrained raising concerns about the quality and oversight of mentoring support.

A systematically structured review of biomarkers of dying in cancer patients in the last months of life; An exploration of the biology of dying.

Background: The Neuberger review made a number of recommendations to improve end of life care, including research into the biology of dying. An important aspect of the biology of dying is the identification of biomarkers as indices of disease processes. Biomarkers have the potential to inform the current, limited understanding of the dying process and assist clinicians in recognising dying, in particular how to distinguish dying from reversible acute deterioration.

Identification of drug combinations administered by continuous subcutaneous infusion that require analysis for compatibility and stability.

Background: A continuous subcutaneous infusion (CSCI) delivered via syringe pump is a method of drug administration used to maintain symptom control when a patient is no longer able to tolerate oral medication. Several classes of drugs, such as opioids, antiemetics, anticholinergics, antipsychotics and benzodiazepines are routinely administered by CSCI alone or in combinations. Previous studies attempting to identify the most-common CSCI combinations are now several years old and no longer reflect current clinical practice.

Collecting biological material from palliative care patients in the last weeks of life: a feasibility study.

Objective: To assess the feasibility of prospectively collecting biological samples (urine) from palliative care patients in the last weeks of life.

Setting: A 30-bedded specialist hospice in the North West of England.

Participants: Participants were adults with a diagnosis of advanced disease and able to provide written informed consent.

How well do we currently care for our dying patients in acute hospitals: the views of the bereaved relatives?

Background: The National Care of the Dying Audit-Hospitals (NCDAH) is used as a method to evaluate care for dying patients in England. An additional component to the 2013/2014 audit was the Local Survey of Bereaved Relatives Views using the 'Care Of the Dying Evaluation' (CODE) questionnaire.

Aim: Within the context of the NCDAH audit, to evaluate quality of care provided to dying patients and their families in acute hospitals from the perspective of bereaved relatives.

The Association of Hydration Status with Physical Signs, Symptoms and Survival in Advanced Cancer-The Use of Bioelectrical Impedance Vector Analysis (BIVA) Technology to Evaluate Fluid Volume in Palliative Care: An Observational Study.

Background: Hydration in advanced cancer is a controversial area; however, current hydration assessments methods are poorly developed. Bioelectrical impedance vector analysis (BIVA) is an accurate hydration tool; however its application in advanced cancer has not been explored. This study used BIVA to evaluate hydration status in advanced cancer to examine the association of fluid status with symptoms, physical signs, renal biochemical measures and survival.

Use of podcast technology to facilitate education, communication and dissemination in palliative care: the development of the AmiPal podcast.

Objectives: Podcasts have the potential to facilitate communication about palliative care with researchers, policymakers and the public. Some podcasts about palliative care are available; however, this is not reflected in the academic literature. Further study is needed to evaluate the utility of podcasts to facilitate knowledge-transfer about subjects related to palliative care.

Longitudinal bioimpedance assessments to evaluate hydration in POEMS syndrome.

Polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, M-protein and skin changes (POEMS) syndrome is a rare paraneoplastic disorder associated with an underlying plasma cell dyscrasia and multiorgan failure. POEMS syndrome is potentially fatal and adversely affects quality of life. Oedema is common with many patients affected by pleural effusions, ascites and lower limb oedema.

The use of reflective diaries in end of life training programmes: a study exploring the impact of self-reflection on the participants in a volunteer training programme.

Background: A training programme was developed and delivered to a cohort of volunteers who were preparing for a unique role to provide companionship to dying patients in the acute hospital setting. This comprehensive programme aimed to provide an opportunity for participants to fully understand the nature and responsibilities of the role, whilst also allowing sufficient time to assess the qualities and competencies of participants for their ongoing volunteering role. Participants completed reflective diaries throughout the training course to record their ongoing thoughts and feelings.

Freeze-drying: an alternative method for the analysis of volatile organic compounds in the headspace of urine samples using solid phase micro-extraction coupled to gas chromatography - mass spectrometry.

Background: Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be intermediates of metabolic pathways and their levels in biological samples may provide a better understanding about diseases in addition to potential methods for diagnosis. Headspace analysis of VOCs in urine samples using solid phase micro extraction (SPME) coupled to gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS) is one of the most used techniques. However, it generally produces a limited profile of VOCs if applied to fresh urine.

Analysis of deaths between 2007 and 2012 of patients with cancer of the head and neck on a surgical ward at a regional centre and in an independent hospice.

Providing the best care for patients dying from cancer of the head and neck is crucial, and their complex, unpredictable needs, particularly at the end of life, mean that they are likely to die in institutional care. To evaluate the care given at the end of life we retrospectively reviewed the case notes of patients who died between 2007 and 2012 in a regional head and neck unit and a specialist palliative care unit (hospice). Deaths were categorised as sudden (rapid or unanticipated) or expected (gradual or anticipated).

Where do patients treated for oral cancer die? A 20-year cohort study 1992-2011.

Of 1290 consecutive patients treated between 1992 and 2011 for primary squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity at a regional centre, 750 had died by August 2013. About half of them (n=373) died in hospital, 113 (15%) in a hospice, 180 (24%) at home, 57 (8%) in a care home, and 22 (3%) elsewhere. Cancer was the underlying cause of death in 64%, and of them, 56% were oral cancers.

The potential therapeutic value for bereaved relatives participating in research: An exploratory study.

Objective: Conducting research with the bereaved presents an immediate ethical challenge, as they are undoubtedly a vulnerable group, associated with high levels of distress and susceptible to both physical and mental health issues. A comprehensive understanding of the potential therapeutic benefits for bereaved relatives participating in palliative care research is limited, and therefore the ethics of engaging this group remain questionable.

Method: This paper describes a secondary analysis of qualitative data collected in the Care of the Dying Evaluation (CODE) project, examining the experiences of patients who died at home.

Palliative Care Medical Education in European Universities: A Descriptive Study and Numerical Scoring System Proposal for Assessing Educational Development.

Context: The lack of palliative medicine (PM) education has been identified as a barrier to the development of the discipline. A number of international institutions have called for its implementation within undergraduate medical curricula.

Objectives: The objectives are to describe the situation of undergraduate PM education in Europe and to propose a scoring system to evaluate its status.