ACP is an essential part of end of life care with patients improving their chances of 'a good death' by creating plans with their families and carers. This new edition gives a comprehensive overview of ACP, explores a wide range of issues and practicalities in providing end of life care, and offers a worldwide perspective.

For patients and their loved ones, no care decisions are more profound than those made near the end of life. Unfortunately, the experience of dying in the United States is often characterized by fragmented care, inadequate treatment of distressing symptoms, frequent transitions among care settings, and enormous care responsibilities for families. According to this report, the current health care system of rendering more intensive services than are necessary and desired by patients, and the lack of coordination among programs increases risks to patients and creates avoidable burdens on them and their families. Dying in America is a study of the current state of health care for persons of all ages who are nearing the end of life. Death is not a strictly medical event. Ideally, health care for those nearing the end of life harmonizes with social, psychological, and spiritual support. All people with advanced illnesses who may be approaching the end of life are entitled to access to high-quality, compassionate, evidence-based care, consistent with their wishes. Dying in America evaluates strategies to integrate care into a person- and family-centered, team-based framework, and makes recommendations to create a system that coordinates care and supports and respects the choices of patients and their families. The findings and recommendations of this report will address the needs of patients and their families and assist policy makers, clinicians and their educational and credentialing bodies, leaders of health care delivery and financing organizations, researchers, public and private funders, religious and community leaders, advocates of better care, journalists, and the public to provide the best care possible for people nearing the end of life.

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Contains expanded content on economics and outcomes of treatment, as well as acute kidney injury. Covers hot topics such as the genetic causes of chronic kidney disease, ethical challenges and palliative care, and home hemodialysis. Discusses the latest advances in hypertensive kidney disease, vitamin D deficiency, diabetes management, transplantation, and more. Provides a clear visual understanding of complex information with high-quality line drawings, photographs, and diagnostic and treatment algorithms.

Advance Care Planning(ACP)has long been a staple of caring for people with serious illness. Over its history, it has been defined in different ways. Clinicians, researchers, patients, and the public have developed a variety of perspectives about the many aspects of ACP, ranging from the definition to the timing, goals, outcomes, and value of ACP. To better understand the challenges and opportunities for ACP, acknowledge and highlight divergent viewpoints, and examine what is empirically known and not known about ACP and its outcomes, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Roundtable on Quality Care for People with Serious Illness hosted a virtual public workshop, Advance Care Planning: Challenges and Opportunities, on October 26 and November 2, 2020. The workshop explored the paradox of ACP, its evidence base, ways to think differently about ACP, and various approaches to making it more effective.This Proceedings of a Workshop summarizes the presentations and discussions from that workshop.

A Medic's Guide to Essential Legal Matters offers practitioners highly practical advice on the legal principles which they need to apply to everyday clinical practice. Thirteen chapters cover key areas of medical law from the structure of the legal system, confidentiality, mental health capacity, through to current legal practices. Each chapter is written in an easy-to-digest format with helpful summary boxes covering key legal terms, laws, and statutes, and 'key point' boxes highlighting important take-home facts. An alphabetical glossary of legal terms at the end of the book offers a rapid reference that supports every chapter. A Medic's Guide to Essential Legal Matters has been carefully crafted to be concise yet informative and practical, covering the key aspects of this daunting subject. Written by a team of doctors and legal practitioners in the field of medical law, this resource offers you the expertise and experience needed to get to grips with medical law. A Medic's Guide to Essential Legal Matters includes access to online-only content, consisting of 65 multiple choice questions and answers that can be used to reinforce understanding, along with further reading sources to supplement and explore topics of interest. You can access and use this online material by activating your unique access code.