Reluctance to Accept Palliative Care and Recommendations for Improvement: Findings From Semi-Structured Interviews With Patients and Caregivers.
Valeria Cardenas, Anna Rahman, Yujun Zhu and 1 others
PMID 33896233WHAT IT FOUND
Patients and caregivers eligible for home-based palliative care often had never heard of it, confused it with hospice, felt too healthy, or found timing and home visits stressful.
They asked for clearer explanation and trusted provider or insurer referral.
Key findings
01Nearly all of the 17 patients and 8 caregivers/proxies had never heard of palliative care before recruitment.
02Some participants confused palliative care with hospice and some felt too healthy for it.
03Some participants recommended referrals from healthcare providers or insurers and clearer explanation of palliative care.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The sample was purposive and drawn from people eligible for one home-based palliative care trial, so the views may not represent all seriously ill patients. Responses may have been influenced by the combined introduction to home-based palliative care and the trial.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest; the funder predetermined the minimum targeted sample.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these recommendations as tested ways to increase palliative care use. The study reports what patients and caregivers said in interviews, not an intervention effect.