An Exploratory Qualitative Study of Patient and Caregiver Perspectives of Ambulatory Kidney Palliative Care.
Alycia A Bristol, Sobaata Chaudhry, Dana Assis and 7 others
PMID 33438435WHAT IT FOUND
Patients and caregivers described visits as helping them understand disease, cope, manage pain, and plan for dialysis withdrawal.
Some had mistaken palliative care for giving up. These are reported experiences, not evidence the clinic improves outcomes.
Key findings
01Participants described empathic communication that combined disease education with psychological impact and said increased knowledge helped them set achievable goals.
02Participants identified gaps in care that the clinic addressed, including symptom management and advance care planning.
03Some participants misunderstood palliative care before the visit, associating it with giving up on life.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Twenty-one consented and twelve completed interviews, and one interview was discarded, so the themes come from a small group. Most interviewed patients were men, and the paper reports no female patient voices. Non-English speakers were excluded. The study was done in one ambulatory clinic, so experiences may not apply elsewhere. The study reports patient and caregiver themes, not measured clinical outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the clinic improves pain, coping, or advance care planning. It reports themes from 12 interviews with patients and caregivers, not measured outcomes.