Relative’s suggestions for improvements in support from health professionals before and after a patient’s death in general palliative care at home: A qualitative register study
- Post by: Elina Mikaelsson Midlov
- 23 January, 2024
- No Comment
Abstract
Introduction: The efforts of relatives in providing palliative care (PC) at home are
important. Relatives take great responsibility, face many challenges and are at increased
risk of poor physical and mental health. Support for these relatives is important,
but they often do not receive the support they need. When PC is provided at
home, the support for relatives before and after a patient’s death must be improved.
This study aimed to describe relatives’ suggestions to improve the support from
health professionals (HPs) before and after a patient’s death in general PC at home.
Methods: This study had a qualitative descriptive design based on the data from
open-ended
questions in a survey collected from the Swedish Register of Palliative
Care. The respondents were adult relatives involved in general PC at home across
Sweden. The textual data were analysed using thematic analysis.
Results: The analysis identified four themes: (1) seeking increased access to HPs,
(2) needing enhanced information, (3) desiring improved communication and (4)
requesting individual support.
Conclusions: It is important to understand and address how the support to relatives
may be improved to reduce the unmet needs of relatives. The findings of this
study offer some concrete suggestions for improvement on ways to support relatives.
Further research should focus on tailored support interventions so that HPs can provide
optimal support for relatives before and after a patient’s death when PC is provided
at home.
Keywords
home care, palliative care, relatives, support improvements, support needs
Reference
Link
https://doi.org/10.1111/scs.13239