On Board: Interdisciplinary Team Member Perspectives of How Patients With Heart Failure and Their Families Navigate Hospice Care.
David Russell, Elizabeth A Luth, Dawon Baik and 2 others
PMID 32658391WHAT IT FOUND
Hospice teams described patients with heart failure as navigating care best when they had strong home support, understood their prognosis, accepted dying, and communicated symptom changes quickly.
Lack of family caregivers or clear information from physicians increased the risk of crisis and hospitalization.
Key findings
01Patients without family or privately hired caregivers were seen as having more difficulty managing symptoms and avoiding suffering, with gaps in home support linked to higher hospitalization risk.
02Team members reported that many patients did not understand what hospice was when they enrolled, often due to physicians not clearly explaining the referral or the terminal prognosis.
03Language barriers were described as a major obstacle to building trust, providing education, and ensuring patients understood their prognosis.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study only includes the perspectives of hospice team members, not the patients or families themselves. The sample was drawn from a single hospice in New York City, which may not reflect other settings. The findings are based on qualitative perceptions and do not measure actual patient outcomes or efficacy of specific interventions.
Declared interests
None reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these themes as evidence that specific interventions improve patient outcomes. The study reports on what hospice staff perceived as barriers and facilitators, not on tested treatments or their effectiveness.