Avril Jackson, on behalf of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) social media team, introduces the most-viewed posts on our blog in 2020.
Avril Jackson.
In the past nine years that I’ve been managing the EAPC blog, I’ve come to truly appreciate the work that goes into it: the passion and commitment to palliative and end-of life care of both our contributors and the wonderful team that I work with. (You can read more about our multinational, multi-professional social media team here – they are the best!). In this post, I want to celebrate some of that passion and commitment and give a big shout out to all those hardworking clinicians, practitioners, researchers and others who contribute to our blog, and especially the authors of our Top Twenty most-viewed posts published in 2020.
It’s the efforts of you all that enabled us to reach people in 191 countries (including overseas protectorates/territories) from six continents who viewed the blog last year. In a year where many people might have declined the invitation to write a blog post on top of a gruelling day, you never let us down and I thank you all.
Authors whose posts were among the most-viewed in the first half of 2020. Top row, left to right: Mai-Britt Guldin, Christoph Ostgathe, Jeroen Hasselaar on behalf of Palliative Sedation, and Danila Valenti. Middle row: Julia Fee Voon, Frank Brennan, Rachel Cripps and co-authors from Cicely Saunders Institute, King’s College London. Bottom row: Lukas Radbruch and Claudia Bausewein, Nathan Cherny, Anna KL Reyners and Elisabeth DeVries; Scott Murray, Sébastien Moine and co-authors from the EAPC Primary Care Reference Group.
So, who are these passionate and committed contributors?
Well, you can spot them in the pictures and read the full list of winning contributions below. It’s an impressive list representing 19 countries across five continents: Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe and North America – proof that the EAPC really does cross borders.
Their backgrounds include academic research, anthropology, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, psychology, public health and spiritual care, alongside hospice CEOs, a communications/education specialist and a published poet/physician. Many are recognised globally for their expertise and experience in palliative and end-of-life care while others, perhaps less well known at this moment, are already making a big impact in the field.
Top-scoring contributors from the second half of 2020: Clockwise from top: Johan Haumann, Rose Kiwanaku, Barry R Ashpole, Nicoleta Mitrea, Daniela Mosoiu, Marc Haufe, Claude Chidiac and Naosuke Yokomichi.
And what did they write about?
The link with our official journals, Palliative Medicine and Journal of Palliative Medicine, ensures that content on the blog reflects some of the latest international research. True to form, three of our most-viewed posts in 2020 relate to longer articles published in these journals. What’s more, EAPC members can download a free PDF of the longer article selected as Editor’s Choice from Palliative Medicine and members are also eligible for a special discount on personal subscriptions to both journals. (Read more about our official journals here: Palliative Medicine; Journal of Palliative Medicine).
Several posts relate to the series on COVID-19 and the Palliative Care Response – our special thanks to EAPC President, Prof Dr Christoph Ostgathe and board member, Dr Danila Valenti, for kick-starting that series within days of the World Health Oganization declaring the global pandemic. As I was in Cuba at that time (where internet connection is often unpredictable and limited to ‘hotspots’ or the local Salsa bar!), publishing those posts was a bit touch and go at times. But we managed, and Danila’s remains one of the most-viewed posts of all time. Another successful series marked the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife 2020 with nursing colleagues featuring prominently in the series and three posts being among the most viewed of the year. Spirituality and Palliative Care was the theme of another series published in 2020, with two posts among the Top Twenty.
More authors whose posts were among the most viewed in the second half of 2020: L to r: Pablo Hernández-Marrero, Sandra Martins Pereira and Minna Hökkä; Shaun O’Leary and Heather Richardson.
Congratulations to the contributors of the twenty most-viewed posts in 2020
The suspense is over… If you still haven’t matched the authors to their blog posts, here’s a list of our Top Twenty most-viewed posts. Please spend a few minutes to click on the links and dive into their posts – you won’t be disappointed. We’re very proud that three of the winners are from our own EAPC social media team – but I’ll be very discreet and leave you to find them!
Meanwhile, our huge thanks to everyone who helps to make our blog a better place…
TOP TWENTY MOST-VIEWED POSTS IN 2020…
Danila Valenti, Italy: From the front line: Palliative care in Bologna during the COVID-19 crisis
Christoph Ostgathe, Germany: Start thinking about palliative care in times of a pandemic: The case of corona …
Jeroen Hasselaar, K Vissers (Netherlands), S Mercadante (Italy), C Centeno (Spain), S Payne, N Preston (UK), L Radbruch (Germany), M van der Lee (Netherlands), A Csikós, (Hungary) and J Menten (Belgium): Palliative sedation in the context of COVID-19: Expert opinions from the Palliative Sedation project
Mai-Britt Guldin, Denmark: Managing bereavement during the COVID-19 pandemic
Rachel Cripps, Simon Etkind, Anna Bone, Adejoke Oluyase, Mevhibe Hocaoglu, Katherine Sleeman and Irene Higginson, UK: What’s the role of palliative care and hospices in the COVID-19 pandemic? Evidence from a systematic review.
Scott Murray (Scotland, UK), Sébastien Moine (France), Yvonne Engels (the Netherlands), Deirdre Shanagher (Ireland) and Maurizio Cancian (Italy): COVID-19 and palliative care: Scale up provision in every country – especially in primary care
Julia Fee Voon Ho, Malaysia: Morphine use for cancer pain: A strong analgesic used only at the end-of-life? A qualitative study on attitudes and perceptions of morphine in patients with advanced cancer and their caregivers.
Dr Frank Brennan, Australia: Spirituality, poetry and palliative care
Nathan I Cherny, (Israel), Anna KL Reyners and Elisabeth DeVries (The Netherlands): New ESMO recommendations for palliative and supportive care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lukas Radbruch and Claudia Bausewein, Germany: The calm before the storm – Germany prepares for the corona deluge.
Marc Haufe, The Netherlands: Five spiritual strengths your patients might be pursuing
Barry R Ashpole, Canada: Abstract Watch: Palliative and end-of-life care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic
Heather Richardson and Shaun O’Leary, UK: Remembering Mary, pioneer of hospice care (a tribute to Dr Mary Baines OBE).
Dr Naosuke Yokomichi, Japan: Palliative sedation does not shorten survival in the last days of life in patients with advanced cancer: A propensity score-weighted analysis of a prospective cohort study
Daniela Mosoiu, Romania: Free Online Undergraduate Medical Education in Palliative Care – the EDUPALL Experience
Minna Hökkä (Finland), Sandra Martins Pereira and Pablo Hernández-Marrero (Portugal): Nursing competencies across different levels of palliative care provision: Highlighting the need for further research and international collaboration
Nicoleta Mitrea, Romania: Are nurses becoming more influential in palliative care? A personal perspective from Romania
Claude Chidiac, UK: The need for early referral to palliative care especially for Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups in a COVID-19 pandemic
Johan Haumann, The Netherlands: Dutch pain management team awarded Best European Paper of 2019 at EAPC World Research Congress Online
Rose Kiwanaku, Uganda: Becoming the first palliative care nurse in Uganda
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