Cancer-Related Fatigue in Hospice: A Nudge to Action?

Hospice interdisciplinary teams attend to patients’ physical, emotional, social, and spiritual concerns. This holistic lens is essential to high-quality end-of-life care, as research suggests that over 80% of hospice patients experience at least one potentially problematic symptom in their final days of life. 1 Phongtankuel V Teresi JA Eimicke JP et al. Identifying the prevalence and correlates of caregiver-reported symptoms in home hospice patients at the end of life. J Palliat Med. 2020; 23: 635-640https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2019.0324 Crossref PubMed Scopus (6) Google Scholar While this high symptom prevalence suggests a need for better symptom management for all hospice patients, the need may be most pronounced for patients with cancer, who tend to experience greater symptom burden than other hospice patients. 1 Phongtankuel V Teresi JA Eimicke JP et al. Identifying the prevalence and correlates of caregiver-reported symptoms in home hospice patients at the end of life. J Palliat Med. 2020; 23: 635-640https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2019.0324 Crossref PubMed Scopus (6) Google Scholar