title: Initial assessment of patients without cognitive failure admitted in palliative care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop a screening tool that was short, not time consuming but able to detect the patients' main problems at admission.
  
  
  METHODS
  A list of 106 symptoms/problems derived from a review of the literature was created and shortened using a Delphi process.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirteen experts scored each item with a numeric rating scale of 0 to 10 for relevance. After 3 rounds, the list was shortened to 14 items: general question--what bothers you the most? symptoms/problems--pain, lack of appetite, vomiting, tiredness/fatigue, nausea, constipation, shortness of breath, depression, anxiety, difficulty sleeping; activity (dressing, washing, etc); support from family/friends; and well-being.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The final tool is short and seems to include the relevant items that would make it useful for clinical practice.
authors: 1Portuguese Institute of Oncology, Portugal.
authors: Ferraz
authors: F
authors: Gonçalves
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008603:Mental Health; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012944:Social Support; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Delphi method; assessment tool; initial assessment; literature review; palliative care; symptoms