Health Experts’ Perspectives on Barriers, Facilitators, and Needs for Improvement of Hospital Care in the Dying Phase

TY - JOUR

T1 - Health Experts’ Perspectives on Barriers, Facilitators, and Needs for Improvement of Hospital Care in the Dying Phase

AU - Kaur, Sukhvir

AU - Boström, Kathleen

AU - Ullrich, Anneke

AU - Oubaid, Nikolas

AU - Oechsle, Karin

AU - Schulz, Holger

AU - Voltz, Raymond

AU - Kremeike, Kerstin

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Introduction. Globally, hospitals are an important place in end-of-life care and most frequent place of death in Germany (47%),but at the same time, the least preferred one—both for patients and their informal caregivers. As hospital care in the dying phaseon non-palliative care wards has rarely been studied systematically, we assessed the current state of care in the dying phase inhospitals as a 8rst step. Methods. In an online survey, N= 165 national health experts were invited to answer eight open questionson care aspects, facilitators, barriers, and needs for improvement as well as COVID-19 pandemic speci8cs regarding hospital carein the dying phase. Sociodemographic data were analysed descriptively, and responses were analysed using qualitative thematicanalysis. Results. Of n = 65 experts, 52% work as nursing sta@ and 30% as physicians. We identi8ed facilitators, barriers, and needsfor improvement regarding 11 topics on the following three levels: institutional level (general institutional conditions, hospitalculture, and integration of specialist palliative care), team level (attitude towards and dealing with death and dying, competencies,communication, and teamwork) and care level (dying phase, symptom control, patient centredness, and involvement of informalcaregivers). Conclusion. Improving care in the dying phase has to overcome barriers on various levels. We assume that rather“small” measures will 8nd their way into clinical routine and contribute to the improvement of hospital care in the dying phase.

AB - Introduction. Globally, hospitals are an important place in end-of-life care and most frequent place of death in Germany (47%),but at the same time, the least preferred one—both for patients and their informal caregivers. As hospital care in the dying phaseon non-palliative care wards has rarely been studied systematically, we assessed the current state of care in the dying phase inhospitals as a 8rst step. Methods. In an online survey, N= 165 national health experts were invited to answer eight open questionson care aspects, facilitators, barriers, and needs for improvement as well as COVID-19 pandemic speci8cs regarding hospital carein the dying phase. Sociodemographic data were analysed descriptively, and responses were analysed using qualitative thematicanalysis. Results. Of n = 65 experts, 52% work as nursing sta@ and 30% as physicians. We identi8ed facilitators, barriers, and needsfor improvement regarding 11 topics on the following three levels: institutional level (general institutional conditions, hospitalculture, and integration of specialist palliative care), team level (attitude towards and dealing with death and dying, competencies,communication, and teamwork) and care level (dying phase, symptom control, patient centredness, and involvement of informalcaregivers). Conclusion. Improving care in the dying phase has to overcome barriers on various levels. We assume that rather“small” measures will 8nd their way into clinical routine and contribute to the improvement of hospital care in the dying phase.

U2 - doi.org/10.1155/2024/1012971

DO - doi.org/10.1155/2024/1012971

M3 - SCORING: Zeitschriftenaufsatz

VL - 2024

SP - 1012971

JO - INT J CLIN PRACT

JF - INT J CLIN PRACT

SN - 1368-5031

ER -