Sep 4, 2017
This episode features Claudia Virdun (Faculty of
Health, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Ultimo, NSW,
Australia) who describes a study which aimed to gain a
richer and deeper understanding of elements of end-of-life care
that consumers consider most important within the hospital
setting.
The study was a meta-synthesis (review of all the qualitative
research on a given subject) of consumer narratives reporting what
they considered important elements of end of life
care. Sixteen studies were included. Synthesis yielded 7
patient and 10 family themes including 6 common themes: (1)
expert care, (2) effective communication and shared
decision-making, (3) respectful and compassionate care,
(4) adequate environment for care, (5) family involvement and
(6) financial affairs. Maintenance of sense of self was the
additional patient theme, while the four additional family
themes were as follows: (1) maintenance of patient safety, (2)
preparation for death, (3) care extending to the family after
patient death and (4) enabling patient choice at the end of
life.
The take home message is that patients and carers have been
consistent in the factors that they consider important in end of
life care. Systems are needed to enable optimal end-of-life
care, in accordance with consumer priorities, and embedded into
routine hospital care. Full paper available
from: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269216316673547
If you would like to record a podcast about your published (or
accepted) Palliative Medicine paper, please contact Dr Amara Nwosu:
anwosu@liverpool.ac.uk