title: Geriatric palliative care in long-term care settings with a focus on nursing homes.
abstract: Almost 1.7 million older Americans live in nursing homes, representing a large proportion of the frailest, most vulnerable elders needing long-term care. In the future, increasing numbers of older adults are expected to spend time and to die in nursing homes. Thus, understanding and addressing the palliative care needs of this population are critical. The goals of this paper are to describe briefly the current state of knowledge about palliative care needs, processes, and outcomes for nursing home residents; identify gaps in this knowledge; and propose priorities for future research in this area.
authors.affiliation: 1 Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Philadelphia VA Medical Center , Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ersek
authors.forename: Joan G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Carpenter
mesh_terms: D016223:Advance Directives; D000368:Aged; D006292:Health Priorities; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care; D009735:Nursing Homes; D010166:Palliative Care; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012106:Research; D014481:United States