Symptom evaluation using observational assessment
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Monica Malec; Joseph W. Shega
- Source
- Progress in Palliative Care. 25:17-22
- Subject
- Mechanical ventilation
medicine.medical_specialty
Palliative care
business.industry
medicine.medical_treatment
Gold standard
Observational assessment
General Medicine
medicine.disease
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Quality of life (healthcare)
030220 oncology & carcinogenesis
Medicine
Dementia
Delirium
Observational study
030212 general & internal medicine
medicine.symptom
business
Intensive care medicine
General Nursing
- Language
- ISSN
- 1743-291X
0969-9260
Symptom management is the cornerstone of hospice and palliative care and begins with a comprehensive assessment. Patient self-report remains the gold standard to determine symptom presence and intensity along with its impact on functional status and quality of life. However, patients often lose the ability to communicate over the course of a progressive illness whether transiently from the development of delirium or an ICU stay with mechanical ventilation or more permanently as a consequence of a cerebrovascular event or progressive neurodegenerative disorder (e.g. dementia).