Palliative And Serious Illness Patient Management For Physician Assistants

The first resource of its kind, Palliative and Serious Illness Patient Management for Physician Assistants provides a fundamental framework for physician assistants and physician associates to incorporate palliative care medicine, including end-of-life care, into their practice. The book focuses on pharmacologic and integrative medical therapeutic modalities, as well as the evaluation and treatment of special populations, which reflects the reality of a physician assistant's day-to-day job. It uses a patient-centered approach to address the comprehensive management of serious illness patients, as well as their designated families, significant others, caregivers, and health care providers. Chapters are organized into six sections that cover the essential aspects of care, symptom management, and transitioning care at the end-of-life. This book is ideal for physician assistant trainers (didactic or clinical), students, and practicing clinicians who seek to enhance their communication and medical skills in the treatment of all seriously illness patient populations in any specialty, and in the management of their symptoms at any stage of their disease or condition.

The first resource of its kind, Palliative and Serious Illness Patient Management for Physician Assistants provides a fundamental framework for physician assistants and physician associates to incorporate palliative care medicine, including end-of-life care, into their practice.

This issue of Physician Assistant Clinics, guest edited by Donna Seton and Rich Lamkin, is devoted to Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine. Articles in this issue include: Introduction to Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine, The Role of the Physician Assistant in Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine, Breaking Serious News: Communication in Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine, Advance Care Planning and Goals of Care in Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine, Palliative Care and Spirituality, Prognostic Tools in Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine, Basics of Pain Management in Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine, Dyspnea in Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine, Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine, Psychiatric Issues in Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine, Pediatric Palliative Care Basics in Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine, and more.

"From its beginning with Eugene Stead, MD at Duke University, the Mission of the Physician Assistant profession has been to create, increase or expand health care access in areas and populations with the greatest need.1 Dr. Henry Silver's Child Health Associate Program at the University of Colorado is a good example as is Dr. Hu Myer's Alderson Broaddus Program which serves isolated rural communities in West Virginia.2 Dr. Richard Smith's MEDEX Program at the University of Washington was also designed specifically to serve rural and medical underserved communities of the Pacific Northwest.3"--

Palliative Care is the first book to provide a comprehensive understanding of the new field that is transforming the way Americans deal with serious illness. Diane E. Meier, M.D., one of the field's leaders and a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius award" in 2009, opens the volume with a sweeping overview of the field. In her essay, Dr. Meier examines the roots of palliative care, explores the key legal and ethical issues, discusses the development of palliative care, and presents ideas on policies that can improve access to palliative care. Dr. Meier's essay is followed by reprints of twenty-five of the most important articles in the field. They range from classic pieces by some of the field's pioneers, such as Eric Cassel, Balfour Mount, and Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, to influential newer articles on topics such as caregiving and cost savings of palliative care. The reprints cover a wide range of topics including: Why the care of the seriously ill is so important Efforts to cope with advanced illness Legal and ethical issues Pain management Cross-cultural issues Philosophical perspective The demand for palliative care has been nothing short of stunning—largely because of palliative care's positive impact on both the quality and the cost of care provided to seriously ill individuals. By providing a wide-ranging perspective on this growing field, this book will serve as a guide for developing meaningful approaches that will lead to better health care for all Americans.

Supports clinicians in providing the best possible care to patients with serious illness The first comprehensive clinical guide for practicing palliative care and hospice clinicians, this evidence-based reference is designed to promote best practices in the delivery of safe, compassionate patient care. With a dual focus on evaluation and intervention, the book covers all aspects of providing palliative and hospice care for vulnerable and diverse populations. It provides an overview of common disease manifestations, typical trajectories of illness, symptom management, and recommendations for nursing care. Written in easy-to-access outline format, the resource is organized by body system and includes common diagnoses encountered in palliative and hospice care. Individual diagnoses include a definition, incidence, etiology, pathophysiology, predisposing factors, subjective and objective data, diagnostic tests, differential diagnoses, complications, disease-modifying treatments, palliative interventions/symptom management, prognosis, and nursing interventions. The text provides referral guidelines for serious illness as well as general and disease-specific hospice care admission guidelines. Also included are comprehensive tables of diagnostic testing, disease-specific palliative and symptom management interventions, prognostic and screening tools, patient teaching and clinician resources, and guides to pain management and wound care. Key Features: Delivers current guidelines for management of symptoms associated with serious illness Provides an in-depth review of common conditions seen in palliative and hospice care Organized by body system for quick information retrieval Delivers in-depth, evidence-based, and consistently organized disease-specific guidelines Presents hospice and palliative care management guidelines Contains reproducible patient/family education handouts Reviews procedures commonly used in hospice and palliative practice

Palliative care is the interdisciplinary specialty focused on improving quality of life for people with serious illness and their families. This interdisciplinary care is provided by doctors, nurses, social workers, chaplains and others who work together with the patient's other doctors to provide an extra layer of support. Such care is appropriate for people at any age and at any stage in a serious illness, and can be provided together with curative treatment to address clinical, emotional, psychosocial and spiritual concerns of the patient and their family. To better understand how the principles of palliative care can be integrated into the overall provision of care and services to those facing serious illness, the Roundtable on Quality Care for People with Serious Illness held a public workshop in April 2017. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Physician Assistant Clinics aims to provide an authoritative and continuously updated clinical information resource that covers all of the relevant PA specialties. Our clinical review articles address the key points, diagnosis, prognosis, clinical management, and complications of disease and techniques, evidence, and controversies in the field. Information for quick reference, as well as in-depth coverage of a topic, is a hallmark of the Clinics’ series.This issue of Physician Assistant Clinics is devoted to Oncology and is edited by Alexandria Garino, MS, PA-C of Yale School of Medicine Physician Associate Program. Articles in this issue include: Nutrition in Cancer Care; Primary Care of the Cancer Survivor; Oncologic Emergencies; Advances in Lung Cancer; New Pharmaceutical Agents in Oncology; Ethical Considerations in Oncology; High Dose Chemotherapy and Stem Cell Rescue; Management of Graft versus Host Disease; Breast Cancer; Colon Cancer; Gynecologic Cancer; Oncology-Related Side Effects; and Improving Access to Care: The PA/MD Team.