Palliative care for critically ill older adults: dimensions of nursing advocacy

Overall, critical care nursing and medical teams are inadequately prepared to deliver palliative care for the critically ill geriatric patient. Conversations with nursing and medical providers caring for the frail elderly within an intensive care unit often reveal feelings of concern for overtreatment of patients when hope for improvement has diminished. Decline of critically ill elders regularly results in conflicts and disagreements surrounding care directives among patient, family, nursing, and specialty service teams. Uncertainty shrouds the care goals as the patient declines within a critical care setting. Nursing and medical providers caring for the critically ill elderly population often waver anxiously between aggressive verses palliative care measures and are troubled by ethical dilemmas of "doing more harm than good." Collaborative, interdisciplinary practice in the face of such dilemmas offers an interactive and practical approach that promotes clinical excellence and improves quality of care for the critically ill. This article defines palliative care, discusses the complexities of caring for the critically ill older adult, and suggests recommendations for nursing practice.     

A Review of Procedural Skills Performed by Advanced Practice Providers in Emergency Department and Critical Care Settings

Advanced practice providers (physician assistants and nurse practitioners) are part of the interdisciplinary teams integral to successful care and improved outcomes for acutely ill patients in intensive care units and emergency departments. Between physician shortage and increased complexity of patients with often rapidly deteriorating conditions, the addition of advanced practice providers and expansion of acute care provider roles result in positive outcomes including decreased hospital length of stay, improved continuity of care, decreased hospital costs and increase inpatient, physician and staff nurses job satisfaction. This article attempts to examine the role that advanced practice providers (APPs) play in performing diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in acute care settings, education provided in physician assistant (PA) and nurse practitioner (NP) programs, and post-graduate training required to achieve competency and comfort in performing procedures. PA and NP training and credentialing often vary at the state level and by practice site. This article aims to collect information on how these roles compare as well as which procedures are actually being performed by advanced practice providers in the emergency department and critical care settings. Considering the healthcare system move towards team-based care, procedures performed by APPs align with the needs of the patient population served and correspond to the procedures done within the teams by physician providers. Independently billing under national provider identifier is cost effective but can be influenced by the current physician reimbursement system or lack of understanding of APP billing process by health care systems. Though there is limited research in this area, this article serves as a starting point to examining the current utilization and utility of APPs performing procedures in the emergency department and critical care settings.     

The future of population medicine: Investigating the role of advanced practice providers and simulation education in special patient populations

Advanced practice providers (APPs) have come to play an increasingly significant role in the United States healthcare system in the past five decades, particularly in primary care. The first portion of this paper will explore the utilization of APPs in specific patient populations: pediatrics, obstetrics, geriatrics, and psychiatry. After a brief discussion of the demand for these specialties, the authors will outline the educational preparation and competencies that nurse practitioners and physician assistants must achieve before working with these special populations. Finally, the authors will discuss the current and future roles of APPs in pediatric, obstetric, geriatric, and psychiatric populations.Simulated patient interactions and scenarios have become integrated into clinical education for many health care providers. Although traditionally utilized only in emergency medicine education, medical simulation has grown to become a staple of training in nearly every area of medicine. Healthcare providers of all levels can benefit from both individual and team-based training designed to improve everything from patient communication to procedural competence. The flexible nature of simulation training allows for customized teaching that is directly relevant to a specific specialty. The second half of this paper will demonstrate simulation's versatilite applications in the specialty areas of urgent care, pediatrics, mental health, geriatrics, and obstetrics.     

Clinical Simulation Augments Traditional Interviewing of Advanced Practice Provider Candidates

An essential role of critical care advanced practice providers—advanced practice registered nurses and physician assistants—is to have knowledge and competency to make accurate and efficient decisions. The ability to manage clinical scenarios involving medically deteriorating patients requires higher-order cognitive thinking and leadership skills that are challenging to extrapolate in traditional interviews. In critical care, advanced practice providers must make rapid clinical assessments and implement appropriate medical interventions to deter progression of life-threatening illnesses. Adding clinical simulation to the traditional interview allows interviewers to evaluate applicants’ crisis resource management skills, leadership, and clinical competency.     

Patient perceptions of the specialty of emergency medicine

The study objective was to determine emergency department (ED) patients' perceptions of the specialty of emergency medicine. We surveyed a convenience sample of adult ED patients regarding their knowledge of the specialty of emergency medicine. Responses included: 22% believing that ED physicians have their own practice outside the ED; 26% of patients with primary care physicians expected to be seen by their primary care physician in the ED; 19% thought ED physicians care for patients after admission; 26% thought that ED physicians perform surgery, 62% perceived emergency medicine to be a specialty; 15% have heard of the American College of Emergency Physicians; 71% thought that ED physicians are board certified and 15% thought paramedics were ED physicians. Patients estimated ED physicians' mean annual mean salary to be $100,000 and 61% believe that ED physicians are hospital employees. In conclusion, the specialty of emergency medicine is not well understood by our patients.     

Guidelines for critical care medicine training and continuing medical education

OBJECTIVE: Critical care medicine trainees and faculty must acquire and maintain the skills necessary to provide state-of-the art clinical care to critically ill patients, to improve patient outcomes, optimize intensive care unit utilization, and continue to advance the theory and practice of critical care medicine. This should be accomplished in an environment dedicated to compassionate and ethical care. PARTICIPANTS: A multidisciplinary panel of professionals with expertise in critical care education and the practice of critical care medicine under the direction of the American College of Critical Care Medicine. SCOPE: Physician education in critical care medicine in the United States should encompass all disciplines that provide care in the intensive care unit and all levels of training: from medical students through all levels of postgraduate training and continuing medical education for all providers of clinical critical care. The scope of this guideline includes physician education in the United States from residency through ongoing practice after subspecialization. DATA SOURCES AND SYNTHESIS: Relevant literature was accessed via a systematic Medline search as well as by requesting references from all panel members. Subsequently, the bibliographies of obtained literature were reviewed for additional references. In addition, a search of organization-based published material was conducted via the Internet. This included but was not limited to material published by the American College of Critical Care Medicine, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, and other primary and specialty organizations. Collaboratively and iteratively, the task force met, by conference call and in person, to construct the tenets and ultimately the substance of this guideline. CONCLUSIONS: Guidelines for the continuum of education in critical care medicine from residency through specialty training and ongoing throughout practice will facilitate standardization of physician education in critical care medicine.     

Medical Oversight,Educational Core Content,and Proposed Scopes of Practice of Wilderness EMS Providers: A Joint Project Developed by Wilderness EMS Educators,Medical Directors,and Regulators Using a Delphi Approach

Introduction: A disparity exists between the skills needed to manage patients in wilderness EMS environments and the scopes of practice that are traditionally approved by state EMS regulators. In response, the National Association of EMS Physicians Wilderness EMS Committee led a project to define the educational core content supporting scopes of practice of wilderness EMS providers and the conditions when wilderness EMS providers should be required to have medical oversight. Methods: Using a Delphi process, a group of experts in wilderness EMS, representing educators, medical directors, and regulators, developed model educational core content. This core content is a foundation for wilderness EMS provider scopes of practice and builds on both the National EMS Education Standards and the National EMS Scope of Practice Model. These experts also identified the conditions when oversight is needed for wilderness EMS providers. Results: By consensus, this group of experts identified the educational core content for four unique levels of wilderness EMS providers: Wilderness Emergency Medical Responder (WEMR), Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician (WEMT), Wilderness Advanced Emergency Medical Technician (WAEMT), and Wilderness Paramedic (WParamedic). These levels include specialized skills and techniques pertinent to the operational environment. The skills and techniques increase in complexity with more advanced certification levels, and address the unique circumstances of providing care to patients in the wilderness environment. Furthermore, this group identified that providers having a defined duty to act should be functioning with medical oversight. Conclusion: This group of experts defined the educational core content supporting the specific scopes of practice that each certification level of wilderness EMS provider should have when providing patient care in the wilderness setting. Wilderness EMS providers are, indeed, providing health care and should thus function within defined scopes of practice and with physician medical director oversight.     

Understanding Palliative Care and Hospice: A Review for Primary Care Providers

Palliative care provides invaluable clinical management and support for patients and their families. For most people, palliative care is not provided by hospice and palliative medicine specialists, but rather by their primary care providers. The recognition of hospice and palliative medicine as its own medical subspecialty in 2006 highlighted the importance of palliative care to the practice of medicine, yet many health care professionals harbor misconceptions about palliative care, which may be a barrier to ensuring that the palliative care needs of their patients are identified and met in a timely fashion. When physicians discuss end-of-life concerns proactively, many patients choose more comfort-focused care and receive care more aligned with their values and goals. This article defines palliative care, describes how it differs from hospice, debunks some common myths associated with hospice and palliative care, and offers suggestions on how primary care providers can integrate palliative care into their practice.     

Measuring the continuity and coordination of medical care in a system involving multiple providers

Patients often receive medical care from many different providers. Consequently, the various episodes of care may not be integrated into a meaningful whole, and the quality of care may suffer. Before this possibility can be evaluated, it is necessary to develop a measure of the integrating process. The authors studied the continuity and coordination of care for 197 patients attending the General Medicine Practice within a large teaching hospital. Each patient had one internist as primary physician; however, a broad array of special services were available at the hospital and were often required. Of 1,768 total visits to the hospital, 62.2% were scheduled to the practice, whereas 92.9% were with the primary physician. For visits outside the practice, coordination (defined as the percent of visits for which the primary and other physicians were aware of each other's contact with shared patients) was 35.2%. Only 74.4% of all visits were either continuous or coordinated. Continuity with a single provider may be determined by patients' needs for services by others. A combined measure of continuity with coordination, such as the one used in this study, is more appropriate for a setting with multiple providers.     

Managed health plan effects on the specialty referral process: results from the Ambulatory Sentinel Practice Network referral study

OBJECTIVES: The specialty referral process is one of the chief targets of managed care constraints on ambulatory medical decision-making. This study examines the influence of gatekeeping arrangements and capitated primary care physician (PCP) payment on the specialty referral process in primary care settings. RESEARCH DESIGN: Primary care practice-based study of referred and nonreferred office visits. SUBJECTS: The study comprised 14,709 visits made by privately insured, nonelderly patients who were seen by 139 primary care physicians in 80 practices located in 31 states. MEASURES: Visits were grouped by health plan type: gatekeeping with capitated PCP payment; gatekeeping with fee-for-service PCP payment; no gatekeeping. Dependent measures included the proportion of visits referred, characteristics of referrals, and physician coordination activities. RESULTS: The percentages of office visits resulting in a referral were similar between the two gatekeeping groups and higher than the no gatekeeping group. Patients in plans with capitated PCP payment were more likely to be referred for discretionary indications than those in nongatekeeping plans (15.5% v 9.9%, P < 0.05). The frequency of referring physician coordination activities did not vary by health plan type. The proportion of patients in gatekeeping health plans within a practice was directly related to employing staff as referral coordinators, allowing nurses to refer without physician consultation, and permitting patients to request referrals by leaving recorded telephone messages. CONCLUSION: The specialty referral process for privately insured nonelderly patients enrolled in managed health plans is generally similar, regardless of the presence of gatekeeping arrangements and capitated PCP payment. An increase in the number of discretionary referrals among patients in plans with capitated PCP payment provides support for exploring strategies that encourage PCPs to manage in their entirety conditions that straddle the boundaries between primary and specialty care. In response to increasing numbers of patients enrolled in managed health plans with gatekeeping arrangements, physicians appear to modify the structure of their practices to facilitate access to and coordination of referrals.     

Managing Pain with Algorithms: An Opportunity for Improvement? Or: The Development and Utilization of Algorithms to Manage Acute Pain

Pain management in a hospital setting remains a challenge today. Many health care providers remain anxious and uninformed regarding analgesic titration within a hospital setting. Overcoming the potential risks to obtain the benefits of opiate titration is a challenge within any health care setting. Virginia Commonwealth University, a tertiary medical center which houses schools of medicine, nursing, and pharmacy, evaluated the use of algorithms for managing acute pain. This article describes the Pain Committee's efforts and offers one potential intervention for safe analgesic opioid titration, an algorithm for acute pain management.     

Physicians' use of health resources for terminal cancer patients: clinical setting versus physician specialty

A large proportion of all Medicare reimbursements (22%) are made for terminally ill patients. Alternative methods of care for such patients (for example, hospice care) may be more appropriate and less costly. The role of physician characteristics in determining use of resources for terminal patients is compared with that of care setting (type of facility), using data from the National Hospice Study. Multiple logistic regression reveals a stronger relationship between care setting and resource utilization than between physician "aggressiveness" and utilization. Physician specialty has little effect on utilization. These findings suggest that care setting may influence physician practice behavior. This may be due to self-selection of particular types of physicians or patients, or to a characteristic of the facility itself.     

The role of new health practitioners in a prepaid group practice: provider differences in process and outcomes of medical care.

Practice patterns and patient-reported outcomes of care are compared in detail for ten physicians and 12 new health practitioners delivering ambulatory care in two departments of a prepaid group practice, the Columbia Medical Plan (CMP). All providers completed questionnaires for a 50 per cent random sample of patients seen during a two-week period. Patients completed questionnaires prior to receiving care and were interviewed one week and one month after their clinic visits. New health practitioners deliver approximately 75 per cent of well-person care, 56 per cent of problem-oriented care in adult medicine, and 29 per cent of problem care in pediatrics. They have become increasingly involved over time in the treatment of acute conditions and injuries while physicians have retained their predominant role in treating patients with chronic conditions. Thirty-two per cent of visits with new healh providers involved a physician in one or more of the following: decision-making, direct supervision, consultation, or seeing the patient as a second provider of care. Degree of autonomy varied by type of task performed, category of problem treated, and specialty. The following outcomes of care were examined by type of provider: patient-reported change in problem status,including frequency and intensity of pain or discomfort, level of anxiety, and degree of activity limitation; the degree to which physician-specified criteria for the most commonly occurring conditions were met with respect to change in problem status; and patient satisfaction with a number of dimensions of the clinic visit. The analysis suggests that the new health practitioners at the CMP are providing care, within their areas of responsibility, of comparable quality to that delivered by physicians.     

Perceptions of roles, practice patterns, and professional growth opportunities

Broadening the scope of advanced practice providers (APPs) has been offered as a solution to increasing healthcare costs, workforce shortage, and increased demand. To understand present scope and barriers to broadening it, the authors describe the perceptions and practice patterns of APPs. This cross-sectional study used a computerized self-report survey of 32 targeted nurse practitioners and physician assistants employed in the cancer center of an urban teaching hospital; 31 were included in the quantitative analyses. Survey items covered education and training background, expertise, professional resources and support, duties, certification, and professional development. Respondents practiced in a variety of oncology specialty areas, but all had advanced degrees, most held specialty certifications, and 39% had attended a professional or educational meeting within the last year. They spent a majority of their time on essential patient-care activities, but clerical duties impeded these; however, 64% reported being satisfied with the time they spent with patients and communicating with collaborating physicians. A model of advanced oncology practice needs to be developed that will empower APPs to provide high-quality patient care at the fullest extent of their knowledge and competence.     

Emergency medicine in Ukraine: challenges in the post-Soviet era

The practice of emergency medicine in Ukraine is markedly different from the practice in North America. The emergency physician counterpart in Ukraine attends 6 years of medical school then 18 months of prehospital physician training at an EMS base station. Once trained, prehospital physicians work 160 hours/month in 24-hour shifts at the base station as part of a physician-nurse team which answers ambulance requests. Most patients are seen and treated on site of the ambulance call. Patients are transported to the hospital only 20% of the time. Prehospital physicians can expect to earn $35 to $65 per month. Nearly all prehospital physicians are government employees. Since becoming an independent democratic republic, Ukraine's turbulent economy has negatively affected health care. Deaths from infectious diseases, including vaccine-preventable illnesses are 10-fold to that of Western countries. A 90% income tax discourages the private practice of medicine. Medical care is provided free of charge, however, if a patient wants a higher standard of care, they may have to pay an attending physician up to $200. Most medications used to treat emergencies are free, but if thrombolytics are required, the patient will have to pay for them before they are administered. Budgetary constraints limit equipment and technology. The disparity between urban and rural resources is striking as even the most basic equipment is antiquated and in need of repair. Despite the economic challenges facing Ukranian physicians, they are enthusiastic about the care and services they provide. EMS is well organized and offers services not seen in the United States. Prehospital physicians in Ukraine are viewed as an integral part of the health care system by their hospital-based colleagues.     

Do financial incentives linked to ownership of specialty hospitals affect physicians' practice patterns?

BACKGROUND: Although physician-owned specialty hospitals have become increasingly prevalent in recent years, little research has examined whether the financial incentives linked to ownership influence physicians' referral rates for services performed at the specialty hospital. OBJECTIVE: We compared the practice patterns of physician owners of specialty hospitals in Oklahoma, before and after ownership, to the practice patterns of physician nonowners who treated similar cases over the same time period in Oklahoma markets without physician-owned specialty hospitals. RESEARCH DESIGN: We constructed episodes of care for injured workers with a primary diagnosis of back/spine disorders. We used pre-post comparisons and difference-in-differences analysis to evaluate changes in practice patterns for physician owners and nonowners over the time period spanned by the entry of the specialty hospital. RESULTS: Findings suggest the introduction of financial incentives linked to ownership coincided with a significant change in the practice patterns of physician owners, whereas such changes were not evident among physician nonowners. After physicians established ownership interests in a specialty hospital, the frequency of use of surgery, diagnostic, and ancillary services used in the treatment of injured workers with back/spine disorders increased significantly. CONCLUSIONS: Physician ownership of specialty hospitals altered the frequency of use for an array of procedures rendered to patients treated at these hospitals. Given the growth in physician-owned specialty hospitals, these findings suggest that health care expenditures will be substantially greater for patients treated at these institutions relative to persons who obtain care from nonself-referral providers.     

Nurse practitioners and physician assistants revisited: do their practice patterns differ in ambulatory care?

The education and regulation of nurse practitioners and physician assistants would suggest unique role differentiations and practice functions between the professions. This study explored to what extent their practice patterns in primary care actually differ. It was hypothesized that the primary care services provided by nurse practitioners would tend to be women and family health services, health prevention and promotion oriented, provided to minority and socioeconomic disadvantaged patients, and less dependent on physician supervision. In contrast, the services provided by physician assistants would more likely be medical/surgical oriented; diagnostic, procedural, and technical in nature; likely to be in rural areas; and more dependent on physician supervision. The study used patient data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. Although some differences emerged, the argument is not compelling to suggest strong, unique, practice differences across all ambulatory care settings between the two types of nonphysician providers. It is the specific type of ambulatory setting that influences the practice pattern for both provider groups. If practice patterns are less distinctive than previously believed, more opportunities for interdisciplinary education need to be explored, and health policies that promote a discipline-specific primary care workforce may need to be reexamined.     

Physician referrals and the medical market place

Factors determining the extent to which physicians obtain new patients through referrals are examined. A more thorough understanding of physician referral patterns can help to explain how competitive forces function in this market and how physician characteristics and credentials affect individual performance. Referral networks promote entry by young physicians into both primary and nonprimary care medical markets. Nevertheless, there are marked differences in referral patterns between primary care and nonprimary care providers. For instance, referrals are directly related to the degree of market competition and board-certification status among primary care physicians but not among nonprimary care specialists. Membership in a group practice is related to significantly more referral activity among nonprimary care physicians but not among primary care providers. No significant differences were found in referral patterns by physician sex. Although foreign medical graduates (FMGs) receive proportionately fewer referrals than do U.S. medical graduates, the differences are not large. While earlier research suggests that the returns to board certification are higher for female physicians, the present study finds little evidence that board certification is particularly helpful to either female physicians or to FMGs in terms of obtaining patients on referral.     

Central Line–Associated Bloodstream Infections and Advanced Practice Providers: Identifying Opportunities for Prevention Efforts

Central venous catheters can be a vital part of patient care in the hospital setting but are at high risk of infection. Central line–associated bloodstream infections pose a high risk of morbidity, mortality, and increased hospital costs. The purpose of this project is to assess the practices and learning needs of advanced practice providers (nurse practitioners and physician assistants) in the provision of evidence-based care to patients with central venous catheters in the hospital setting. This can guide further educational initiatives for central line–associated bloodstream infection prevention.