Search

Background: Fatigue is a common and distressing symptom for palliative care patients. Although the current literature emphasizes nonpharmacological management, dexamethasone is reportedly used in clinical practice. This study helps to characterize its use, efficacy, and adverse effects in a real-world setting., Objective: To improve the evidence base by exploring the use, efficacy, and side effect profile of dexamethasone for fatigue management., Methods: This international multisite prospective observational case series assessed the benefit and adverse effects of dexamethasone at baseline (T0) and at five to seven days postbaseline (T1). Fatigue scores were assessed using the symptom assessment scale (SAS) and visual analogue fatigue scale (VAFS). Adverse events were graded using the National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (NCI-CTCAE). The related samples Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare before and after scores., Results: All 18 patients (male-female, 11:7) had advanced metastatic cancer with most in the deteriorating palliative care phase (56%). The most common dose of dexamethasone was 4 mg daily orally. At T1 ( n  = 12), improvement was seen in all measures of fatigue; the median SAS scores decreased from 7 to 5.5 ( p  = 0.007), the median VAFS scores increased from 3 to 5 ( p  = 0.126), and the median NCI-CTCAE fatigue scores were reduced from 3 to 2.5 ( p  = 0.18). Dexamethasone was well tolerated; one participant experienced grade 3 delirium., Conclusion: The small number of participants recruited for this study suggests that dexamethasone is not widely used specifically for fatigue. Our results suggest an improvement in fatigue scores from T0 to T1., Competing Interests: No competing financial interests exist., (© Gemma Ingham et al., 2024; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.)

Purpose: The purpose of this systematic review with meta-analysis was to evaluate the safety, feasibility and effectiveness of exercise in the palliative care phase for people with advanced cancer., Methods: Electronic databases were searched for exercise randomised controlled trials involving individuals with incurable cancer that were published prior to April 14, 2021. Meta-analyses were performed to evaluate the effects of exercise on health outcomes. Subgroup effects for exercise mode, supervision, intervention duration and cancer diagnosis were assessed., Results: Twenty-two trials involving interventions ranging between 2 weeks and 6 months were included. Interventions comprised of aerobic (n = 3), resistance (n = 4), mixed-mode (n = 14) and other exercise (n = 1) modalities. Cancer types consisted of lung (n = 6), breast (n = 3), prostate (n = 2), multiple myeloma (n = 1) and mixed cancer types (n = 10). Meta-analysis of 20 RCTs involving 1840 participants showed no difference in the risk of a grade 2-4 adverse event between exercise and usual care (n = 110 adverse events (exercise: n = 66 events; usual care: n = 44 events), RD =  - 0.01 (91% CI =  - 0.01, 0.02); p = 0.24). Overall median recruitment, retention and adherence rates were 56%, 80% and 69%, respectively. Meta-analysis of health outcomes showed effects in favour of exercise for quality of life, fatigue, aerobic fitness and lower-body strength (SMD range = 0.27-0.48, all p < 0.05)., Conclusions: Participants who engaged in exercise experienced an increase in quality of life, fitness and strength and a decrease in fatigue., Implications for Cancer Survivors: Physical activity programs were found to be safe and feasible for people with advanced cancer in the palliative care phase., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Cancer cachexia (CC) is a debilitating syndrome severely impacting patients' quality of life and survivorship. We aimed to investigate the health care professionals' (HCPs') experiences of dealing with CC., Methods: Survey questions entailed definitions and guidelines, importance of CC management, clinician confidence and involvement, screening and assessment, interventions, psychosocial and food aspects. The online survey was disseminated through Australian and New Zealand palliative care, oncology, allied health and nursing organisations. Frequencies were reported using descriptive statistics accounting for response rates. Associations were examined between variables using Fisher's exact and Pearson's chi-square tests., Results: Over 90% of the respondents (n = 192) were medical doctors or nurses. Over 85% of the respondents were not aware of any guidelines, with 83% considering ≥ 10% weight loss from baseline indicative of CC. CC management was considered important by 77% of HCPs, and 55% indicated that it was part of their clinical role to assess and treat CC. In contrast, 56% of respondents were not confident about managing CC, and 93% believed formal training in CC would benefit their clinical practice. Although formal screening tools were generally not used (79%), 75% of respondents asked patients about specific symptoms. Antiemetics (80%) and nutritional counselling (86%) were most prescribed or recommended interventions, respectively., Conclusion: This study underlines the deficiencies in knowledge and training of CC which has implications for patients' function, well-being and survival. HCP training and a structured approach to CC management is advocated for optimal and continued patient care., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' Standards for general practice training require supervisor continuing professional development (PD) to meet the needs of the individual supervisors and develop the supervisory team., Objective: The aim of this article is to explore current supervisor PD and consider how it might better meet the outcomes described in the standards., Discussion: General practitioner supervisor PD delivered by regional training organisations (RTOs) continues to operate without a national curriculum. It is predominantly workshop based and is complemented in some RTOs by online modules. Workshop learning is important for supervisor identity formation and establishing and maintaining communities of practice. Current programs are not structured to deliver individualised supervisor PD or develop the in-practice supervision team. Supervisors may struggle to translate workshop learning into changes in their practice. An in-practice quality improvement intervention facilitated by a visiting medical educator has been developed to address weaknesses in current supervisor PD. This intervention is ready to be trialled and further evaluated.

Background: Standard practice after all vaccinations in Australia is to observe patients for 15min. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, could the risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19 acquired in the waiting room be greater than the risk of dying from post-vaccine anaphylaxis when leaving immediately?, Methods: The risks are modelled for a patient aged 70+years attending for annual influenza vaccination in a typical Australian general practice clinic. The risk of death from anaphylaxis is estimated based on known rates of anaphylaxis shortly after influenza vaccination. The risk of acquiring COVID-19 during a 15-min wait and then dying from that infection is estimated using the COVID-19 Aerosol Transmission Estimator and COVID-19 Risk Calculator., Results: Other than at times of extremely low COVID-19 prevalence, the risk of death from anaphylaxis for a patient aged 70+years leaving immediately after influenza vaccine is less than the risk of death from COVID-19 acquired via aerosol transmission during a 15-min wait. The risk of death from COVID-19 is greatest for the unimmunised and when masks are not worn., Conclusions: A more nuanced approach to advice post-vaccination is recommended that considers current COVID-19 prevalence and virulence, the characteristics of the waiting room, the risk of anaphylaxis, and the patient's susceptibility to death from COVID-19. There are many circumstances where it would be safer for a patient to leave immediately after vaccination.

Purpose: Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a common and debilitating consequence of cancer and its treatment. Numerous supportive care interventions have been developed to alleviate CRF; however, the diversity of outcome measures used to assess CRF limits comparability of findings. We aimed to evaluate the content and psychometric properties of measures used to assess CRF in interventions targeting fatigue, to inform the selection of suitable measures in future research., Methods: Included measures were identified from a systematic review of interventions targeting CRF. General characteristics of each measure were extracted, and item content was assessed against domains specified by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) definition of CRF. Psychometric properties were evaluated against COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of heath Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) criteria., Results: Of 54 measures identified, 25 met inclusion criteria. Seventeen were fatigue-specific and eight a fatigue subscale or single item within a broader measure. Only 14 (56%) were specifically developed for cancer populations. Content coverage according to the NCCN CRF definition ranged from 0 to 75%. Evidence for fulfilment of COSMIN criteria in cancer populations ranged from 0 to 93%, with only five measures meeting > 70% of the COSMIN criteria., Conclusion: The Piper Fatigue Scale-Revised had good content coverage, but did not comprehensively address COSMIN criteria. The EORTC-FA12 and FACIT/FACT-F had excellent psychometric properties, with each capturing different aspects of fatigue. Ultimately, the choice of CRF measure should be guided by the research question and the CRF domains most relevant to the particular research context., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

General practice (GP) supervisors - the key resource for training the future GP workforce - are often described as 'occupying a role' or enacting a series of roles. However, as much of the discourse uses a lay understanding of role, or merely hints at theory, a significant body of theoretical literature is underutilised. We reasoned that a more rigorous application of role theory might provide a conceptually clearer account of the GP-supervisor's job. To this end, we describe the use of organisational role theory and job analysis to identify and define the roles of the Australian GP-supervisor. Our search of the academic literature identified 64 role titles, which we condensed to an initial iteration of core roles, using inclusion and exclusion criteria. We analysed GP training organisations' documents to map embedded supervisory tasks against our list of roles to verify their presence, review our role titles and definitions, and look for additional roles that we may have missed. We used subject matter experts iteratively, to authenticate a final list of ten roles and their accompanying definitions, which can be used to support Australian GP-supervisors to perform effectively. We encourage those who support GP-supervisors in other countries and those who educate other health professionals in primary care settings to review the roles to judge whether they are transferable to their contexts.

Background: The Medical Board of Australia intends to mandate that at least 25% of continuing professional development (CPD) is focused on performance review., Objective: The aim of this article is to describe how random case analysis (RCA) can be used for performance review in general practice clinical team meetings, and outline its benefits and challenges., Discussion: RCA is a powerful learning method for CPD. Involving peers in case review allows practice quality improvement and safety issues to be explored. Planning is required to overcome logistic and legal barriers and to ensure accreditation of the activity by The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Vital to the success of RCA is a supportive educational environment and the provision of learner-centred and specific feedback.

Context: Fatigue is the most commonly reported symptom in life-limiting illnesses, although not much is known about the distress it causes patients as they approach death., Objectives: To map the trajectory of distress from fatigue reported by an Australian palliative care population in the last 60 days leading up to death., Methods: A prospective, longitudinal, consecutive cohort study using national data from the Australian Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration between July 1, 2013, and December 31, 2018. Patients were included if they had at least one measurement of fatigue on a 0-10 numerical rating scale in the 60 days before death. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse patients by diagnostic cohort and functional status., Results: A total of 116,604 patients from 203 specialist palliative care services were analyzed, providing 501,104 data points. Distress from fatigue affected up to 80% of patients referred to palliative care, with the majority experiencing moderate or severe distress. Malignant and nonmalignant diagnoses were equally affected, with the neurological cohort showing the greatest variability. The degree of distress correlated with a patient's functional level; it worsened as a patient's function declined until a patient became bedbound when the reporting of distress reduced., Conclusions: Distress from fatigue is high in this cohort of patients. Interventions to reduce this distress need to be a research priority., (Copyright © 2020 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Timely clinical supervision of trainee consultations plays a key role in ensuring the safety of patients under the care of general practice trainees, and in trainee learning and professional development. Trainee requests for assistance during their consultations present supervisors with a number of challenges, however, and a number of factors act as barriers to, or reduce the utility of, this in-consultation assistance from the trainee's perspective. Face-to-face supervision in the presence of the patient presents particular challenges and opportunities. It is important to address barriers to trainee help-seeking and improve both trainee and supervisor skills in promoting safe, effective and efficient in-consultation supervision. We introduce a model (β-LACTAM) to assist supervisors in planning and delivering their face-to-face in-consultation supervision. The recent evidence which informed the development of this model is outlined, and some preliminary findings from a pilot of β-LACTAM in Australian general practice training are presented.

Timely supervisor input to the care of their trainees' patients plays a key role in ensuring the safety of patients under the care of general practice trainees. Supervisor responses to trainee calls for assistance are also important for trainee learning and professional identity formation. The in-consultation supervisory encounter in general practice training is, however, a complex social space with multiple trainee, supervisor and patient agendas. Trainee requests for assistance during their consultations are known to present general practitioner supervisors with a number of challenges. From the trainee's perspective, a safe learning environment is essential during these supervisory interactions. A number of factors may act as barriers to, or reduce the usefulness of, in-consultation assistance in particular, resulting in trainees being less likely to seek such assistance on future occasions. It is therefore important to improve both trainee and supervisor skills in safe, effective and efficient in-consultation supervision. Making time for trainee and supervisor conversations about their help-seeking and help provision may uncover opportunities for improving skills, aligning agendas and enhancing outcomes. Finding time for debriefing, reflection and effective feedback conversations may be challenging, however, and opportunities for trainees to provide feedback to their supervisors are known to be particularly limited. We introduce a Debriefing, Reflection and Feedback Guide which is designed to prompt reflection, and structure effective and efficient debriefing and reciprocal feedback conversations. We outline the evidence which informed the development of the Guides, and present some preliminary findings from a pilot in Australian general practice training.

Timely supervisor input into patient care plays a key role in ensuring the safety of patients under the care of general practice trainees. Current models of clinical supervision for trainees in both hospital and general practice training have, however, been criticised for placing too much onus on the trainee to request assistance, despite the many known barriers for trainees to do so. An important barrier to general practice trainee help-seeking is trainee uncertainty about when and how their clinical supervisor expects them to seek this assistance. We introduce a tool, 'Flags for Seeking Help', which was modified from an existing checklist, to assist supervisors to tailor their input to the care of their trainee's patients. The tool aims to make supervisor expectations of trainees explicit, including when trainees should request assistance during consultations (rather than defer this until more convenient opportunities) and when this assistance should be face-to-face (rather than by phone or messaging systems). Our aim is to reduce the barriers for trainees to request in-consultation and face-to-face supervision, in particular, when it is indicated. We outline the evidence which informed the development of the tool, and present some preliminary findings from a pilot in Australian general practice training.

Background: Fatigue is a common and significant problem for palliative care (PC) patients, affecting up to 80% of patients. Health care professionals (HCPs) commonly underestimate its significance and lack the confidence in how to manage it, resulting in poor quality of life. It is currently not known how PC professionals manage fatigue in clinical practice or what the barriers to implementation are. Objective: To determine the current attitudes of HCPs toward fatigue management in patients with a life-limiting illness. Design/Setting: An electronic survey, created on REDCap, was distributed to all staff working directly with PC patients in both the community and inpatient setting within the Sydney Local Health District. The study duration was for four weeks (May 1-30, 2018). Results: Participants recognized that fatigue is common, but only 58.5% recognized that severe fatigue is more distressing than pain. A total of 77.2% of participants do not find fatigue an easy symptom to manage and less than half (46.9%) feel confident assessing and managing it. There was no consistent systematic approach to management although exercise, education, and pacing/energy conservation were recognized as important interventions. Themes identified as potential barriers to management included lack of resources, poor patient and staff understanding, and patient/disease factors. Conclusions: HCPs lack confidence in assessing fatigue and completing an individualized management plan; the approaches adopted are highly variable. This justifies the need for further education, as well as further research assessing the efficacy of a multimodal intervention and a guideline to assist in management., Competing Interests: No competing financial interests exist., (© Gemma Ingham and Katalin Urban, 2020; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.)

Background and Objectives: Currently when undergoing Australian general practice training, a registrar must determine when clinical supervision is needed. The aim of this study was to identify situations in early Australian general practice training requiring closer supervision and consider how this can be achieved., Method: The study used a qualitative approach involving 75 registrars, supervisors and medical educators from seven focus groups in Victoria and Tasmania., Results: Eighty circumstances in which a registrar should call their general practice supervisor were identified. Participants indicated the 'call for help' list should be modified early in the term after considering the registrar's prior experience, and through the term as supervision and teaching identifies readiness for independent practice., Discussion: The size of the list developed by the focus groups reflects the breadth of general practice. It is a 'call for help' list rather than a safety checklist as it is not exclusively concerned with high-risk scenarios and includes broad triggers to call for help. The 'call for help' list is an aid to patient safety and the supervisor-registrar alliance.

Major system change involving closer supervision of trainee GP registrars in Australia is warranted. Change management guidelines recommend involving stakeholders in developing change. The views of those involved in general practice training about current and potential supervisory practice were explored. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a lead medical educator from nine Australian regions. Focus groups were conducted with GP supervisors and GP registrars. Transcripts from the interviews and focus groups were analysed using conventional content analysis, with themes emerging inductively from the data. The findings were that over 1-3 months, a registrar could progress from their supervisor observing all consultations through to the registrar only calling when they identify the need for help. There is strong support from registrars for this change to closer supervision, but less support from supervisors and educators. Barriers to the proposed change include high clinical demand competing with teaching capacity, inadequate payment for closer supervision and supervisors lacking skills or motivation to have a more active role in registrar supervision. If funding and logistic barriers to change are addressed, a change to a closer level of supervision is possible. A pilot study to further refine the change is indicated.

In contrast to other comparable countries, trainees commencing general practice in Australia can see patients without being required to contact their supervisor. To understand how patient safety in early training is managed a qualitative study design using semi-structured interviews was used. A lead medical educator from each of the nine Australian Regional Training Organisations (RTOs) was interviewed. Transcriptions of interviews were analysed to identify themes. RTOs do not mandate a period of direct observation of trainees and the use of safety checklists for supervision is variable and not monitored. The oversight of training practices by RTOs mirrors that of trainees by supervisors. The onus falls on those being supervised to identify the need for assistance. Despite this, lead medical educators still consider the commencement of general practice training to be safe. Other factors found potentially to impact on safety include the variability of training practices and supervision; the complex RTO-practice relationship; quota-driven selection of doctors into general practice; and the negative impact on education of the funding model. Patient safety may be improved by a period of direct observation of potential trainees prior to the commencement of general practice training and the use of checklists to encourage supervision of high risk activities.

Background: In response to the advent of competency-based training and the increase in the number of general practice registrars, the Australian general practice education community is seeking valid, reliable, time-efficient and cost-efficient tools to assess registrars. Despite the central role of the external clinical teaching visit (ECTV) in formative assessment of general practice registrars, the ECTV has been an infrequent subject of research or evaluation., Objective: The objective of this article is to report on the development of a new approach to ECTV that adds random case analysis to direct observation of consultations - ARCADO ECTV., Discussion: ARCADO ECTV is a flexible, acceptable and time-efficient formative assessment. The two assessment approaches in the ARCADO ECTV provide complementary insights into the registrar's performance. At least three observed consultations are required to ensure adequate assessment of communications skills. Medical records need to be of recent consultations. There is scope for development of the ARCADO ECTV as a summative assessment.

Background: The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' Standards for general practice training allow different models of registrar supervision, provided these models achieve the outcomes of facilitating registrars' learning and ensuring patient safety., Objective: In this article, we describe a model of supervision called 'blended supervision', and its initial implementation and evaluation., Discussion: The blended supervision model integrates offsite supervision with available local supervision resources. It is a pragmatic alternative to traditional supervision. Further evaluation of the cost-effectiveness, safety and effectiveness of this model is required, as is the recruitment and training of remote supervisors. A framework of questions was developed to outline the training practice's supervision methods and explain how blended supervision is achieving supervision and teaching outcomes. The supervision and teaching framework can be used to understand the supervision methods of all practices, not just practices using blended supervision.

Background: Workplace-based formative assessments using consultation observation are currently conducted during the Australian general practice training program. Assessment reliability is improved by using multiple assessment methods. The aim of this study was to explore experiences of general practice medical educator assessors and registrars (trainees) when adding random case analysis to direct observation (ARCADO) during formative workplace-based assessments., Methods: A sample of general practice medical educators and matched registrars were recruited. Following the ARCADO workplace assessment, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted. The data was analysed thematically., Results: Ten registrars and eight medical educators participated. Four major themes emerged - formative versus summative assessment; strengths (acceptability, flexibility, time efficiency, complementarity and authenticity); weaknesses (reduced observation and integrity risks); and contextual factors (variation in assessment content, assessment timing, registrar-medical educator relationship, medical educator's approach and registrar ability)., Conclusion: ARCADO is a well-accepted workplace-based formative assessment perceived by registrars and assessors to be valid and flexible. The use of ARCADO enabled complementary insights that would not have been achieved with direct observation alone. Whilst there are some contextual factors to be considered in its implementation, ARCADO appears to have utility as formative assessment and, subject to further evaluation, high-stakes assessment.

Background: In medical education, a learner-centred approach is recommended. There is also a trend towards workplace-based learning outside of the hospital setting. In Australia, this has resulted in an increased need for General Practitioner (GP) supervisors who are receptive to using adult learning principles in their teaching. Little is known about what motivates Australian GP supervisors and how they currently teach., Methods: A qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with 20 rural GP supervisors who work within one Regional Training Provider region in Australia explored their reasons for being a supervisor and how they performed their role. Data was analysed using a thematic analysis approach., Results: GP supervisors identified both personal and professional benefits in being a supervisor, as well as some benefits for their practice. Supervision fulfilled a perceived broader responsibility to the profession and community, though they felt it had little impact on rural retention of doctors. While financial issues did not provide significant motivation to teach, the increasing financial inequity compared with providing direct patient care might impact negatively on the decision to be or to remain a supervisor in the future. The principal challenge for supervisors was finding time for teaching. Despite this, there was little evidence of supervisors adopting strategies to reduce teaching load. Teaching methods were reported in the majority to be case-based with styles extending from didactic to coach/facilitator. The two-way collegiate relationship with a registrar was valued, with supervisors taking an interest in the registrars beyond their development as a clinician., Conclusion: Supervisors report positively on their teaching and mentoring roles. Recruitment strategies that highlight the personal and professional benefits that supervision offers are needed. Practices need assistance to adopt models of supervision and teaching that will help supervisors productively manage the increasing number of learners in their practices. Educational institutions should facilitate the development and maintenance of supportive supervision and a learning culture within teaching practices. Given the variety of teaching approaches, evaluation of in-practice teaching is recommended.

Background: The new Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' vocational training standards emphasise patient safety and matching the level of supervision to registrar competence., Methods: All supervisors attending a regional training provider's annual education workshop were surveyed about their overall confidence in assessing the safety of their registrars' patients, their registrars' competence across the five RACGP domains of general practice and supervision methods used., Results: Of 84 supervisors, 92.8% expressed overall confidence in their ability to assess their registrars' competence and 10.7% were totally confident. Consultation observation and audit techniques were infrequently used in their assessments., Discussion: Supervisors reported confidence in their ability to assess their registrars' competence, suggesting readiness for outcomes-based standards. The low frequency of using supervision methods considered more effective in targeting registrars' 'unknown unknowns' and the reduction in confidence with greater experiences as a supervisor raises concerns about the accuracy of this self-assessment.