User:Kennedybreak/Hospice and palliative medicine

Evaluation of Article

 * Name of article: (link) Hospice and palliative medicine
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate.

This article is relevant to my course of Chronic Illness, Dying, and Death because it relates to the topic in the sense that when people are faced with chronic illness, dying, and death, they could possibly encounter hospice and/or palliative care. Through examining this article, I can learn about the scope of practice and take away more information regarding the details of both hospice and palliative care.

Lead

Guiding questions


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?

Lead evaluation

The Lead includes an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes what hospice and palliative care is and entails. The Lead also contains a brief description of the some of the major sections but it doesn't make it very clear what all the sections will include. The Lead does include information that is not present in the article by discussing the co-sponsors of hospice and palliative medicine. The Lead was fairly concise but did not exactly include information relevant to the sections. It was not overly-detailed but just needs some changes in its content to information that is more closely aligned with the information in the sections.

Content

Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?
 * Does the article deal with one of Wikipedia's equity gaps? Does it address topics related to historically underrepresented populations or topics?

Content evaluation

The article's content is relevant to the topic and is fairly up-to-date but does not meet Wikipedia's standards because many sources mentioned are older than 5 years old. There is lots of content that is missing because there are only two sections in the article, and they hardly even discuss what hospice and palliative care is or what it entails such as its patients or the differences in the types of care. The article does not deal with one of Wikipedia's equity gap or address topics related to historically underrepresented populations because the article barely contains any information regarding the people that hospice and palliative medicine consists of.

Tone and Balance

Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral?
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?

Tone and balance evaluation

The article appears to be neutral and there aren't any claims that appear heavily biased toward any particular position. There are no viewpoints that are overrepresented but possibly underrepresented due to the lack of information present in the article. The article does not attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or another. The article just gives facts of what hospice and palliative sub-specialties.

Sources and References

Guiding questions


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
 * Are the sources current?
 * Are the sources written by a diverse spectrum of authors? Do they include historically marginalized individuals where possible?
 * Check a few links. Do they work?

Sources and references evaluation

The facts in the article are cited but the sources in the article do not appear to be secondary sources that would be considered completely reliable. The sources do appear to be thorough sources and reflect the information that was used by the source. The sources are fairly current but not current enough for Wikipedia's standards because all of the sources were almost ten years old. The sources are written by the same organization know as the American Board of Medical Specialties, and do not use anything historical. When checking the links, all of them showed errors or did not bring me to the proper information.

Organization

Guiding questions


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?

Organization evaluation

The article is not very well-written, because its information is very sparse and not written in a way that conveys each section's ideas well. The article does not have any grammatical or spelling errors that I noticed. The article is not well-organized because there are only two sections that contain hardly any information. The sections are not extremely relevant and they do not convey the ideas of the sections well either but rather make it confusing and hard to understand.

Checking the talk page

Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?.
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

Talk page evaluation

The conversations going on behind the scenes include improving the sources as well as the possibility of merging its information with the page known as Palliative Medicine due to its lack of information. The article is rated as Start-Class and Low Importance. It is apart of WikiProject Death. The way Wikipedia discusses the topic is different than the way we've talked about it in class because in class, we discussed the types of patients that hospice and palliative medicine include as well as the types of treatment but the article just discusses the sub-specialties and the organizations associated with it.

Overall impressions

Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status?
 * What are the article's strengths?
 * How can the article be improved?
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?

Overall evaluation

The article's overall status is very poor. The article's strengths are that it includes information regarding the sub-specialties of hospice and palliative medicine that does not always get talked about. The article can be improved in many ways such as including more relevant sections, more information in the sections, and better sources that are up-to-date and thorough. The article is both underdeveloped and poorly developed and could use lots of work to be a well-developed article.

Article Drafts
Hospice and palliative medicine can be differentiated by who they treat, when the treatment occurs, and who is involved in the process of treatment. Hospice care refers to those who have a life expectancy of 6 months or less and the care focuses on minimizing pain for the duration of their life. Palliative care refers to those who struggle with chronic condition and the care focuses on treatment for the patient in order to extend life.



Physicians who complete a residency in one of the co-sponsoring specialties are then eligible for further training in an ACGME-approved Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship program, after which they must pass the official examination to be board-certified in the subspecialty.

In 2007, the American Osteopathic Association Bureau of Osteopathic Specialists approved a Certificate of Added Qualifications (CAQ) in hospice and palliative medicine. By 2012 participants are the American Osteopathic Boards of


 * Internal Medicine
 * Family Medicine
 * Neurology and Psychiatry
 * Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Candidates are eligible for CAQ certification after achieving board-certification following an American Osteopathic Association-approved residency.

[My edits/addition to article] Hospice and palliative medicine can be differentiated by who they treat, when the treatment occurs, and who is involved in the process of treatment. Hospice care refers to those who have a life expectancy of 6 months or less and the care focuses on minimizing pain for the duration of their life. Palliative care refers to those who struggle with chronic condition and the care focuses on treatment for the patient in order to extend life. The approach to treatment varies between both hospice and palliative care and can vary from patient to patient as well.

[Add subsection titled "Hospice Care"]

Hospice care is the act of caring for patients that have been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and the role of the care is to manage pain and symptoms for the duration of illness. Some terminal illnesses that hospice patients could be treated for are


 * Cancer
 * Alzheimer's Disease
 * Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease)
 * Congestive heart failure
 * AIDS
 * Multiple Sclerosis

Hospice medicine can vary from patient to patient due to differences in their terminal illnesses. Common types of treatment can include pain medications such as Morphine, Fentanyl, and Oxycodone.

[Add subsection titled "Palliative Care"]

Palliative care is the act of caring for patients to optimize quality of life and manage suffering for those with chronic conditions. Palliative care can differ from hospice care by the form of care that is being provided. Palliative care treatment can include interventions to optimize quality of life and focus on the outlook of the condition. Treatments can include exercise but also can focus on psychosocial distress that patients face.