TY - JOUR
T1 - The challenges for health professionals delivering palliative care in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic
T2 - An integrative review
AU - Frey, Rosemary
AU - Balmer, Deborah
PY - 2023/3/27
Y1 - 2023/3/27
N2 - Objectives The growing demand for palliative care has been accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, providing community-based palliative care was also more difficult to do safely and faced several challenges. The goal of this integrative review was to identify, describe, and synthesize previous studies on the challenges for health professionals delivering palliative care in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Searches were carried out on the Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Social Care Online, PubMed, Embase, and Expanded Academic databases. Journals typically reporting palliative care and community health studies were also searched (Palliative Medicine, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, and Health & Social Care in the Community). All articles were peer-reviewed and published in English between December 2019 and September 2022. Results Database and hand searches identified 1231 articles. After duplicates were removed and the exclusion criteria applied, 27 articles were included in the final review. Themes in the research findings centered on 6 interconnected categories. The challenges imposed by the pandemic (lack of resources, communication difficulties, access to education and training, and interprofessional coordination), as well as the varying levels of success of the health-care responses, impacted the well-being of health professionals and, in turn, the well-being and care of patients and families. Significance of results The pandemic has provided the impetus for rethinking flexible and innovative approaches to overcome the challenges of delivering community palliative care. However, existing governmental and organizational policies require revision to improve communication and effective interprofessional collaboration, and additional resources are needed. A blended model of virtual and in-person palliative care delivery may provide the best solution to community palliative care delivery moving forward.
AB - Objectives The growing demand for palliative care has been accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, providing community-based palliative care was also more difficult to do safely and faced several challenges. The goal of this integrative review was to identify, describe, and synthesize previous studies on the challenges for health professionals delivering palliative care in the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Searches were carried out on the Ovid MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Social Care Online, PubMed, Embase, and Expanded Academic databases. Journals typically reporting palliative care and community health studies were also searched (Palliative Medicine, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, and Health & Social Care in the Community). All articles were peer-reviewed and published in English between December 2019 and September 2022. Results Database and hand searches identified 1231 articles. After duplicates were removed and the exclusion criteria applied, 27 articles were included in the final review. Themes in the research findings centered on 6 interconnected categories. The challenges imposed by the pandemic (lack of resources, communication difficulties, access to education and training, and interprofessional coordination), as well as the varying levels of success of the health-care responses, impacted the well-being of health professionals and, in turn, the well-being and care of patients and families. Significance of results The pandemic has provided the impetus for rethinking flexible and innovative approaches to overcome the challenges of delivering community palliative care. However, existing governmental and organizational policies require revision to improve communication and effective interprofessional collaboration, and additional resources are needed. A blended model of virtual and in-person palliative care delivery may provide the best solution to community palliative care delivery moving forward.
KW - Community
KW - COVID-19
KW - Home
KW - Hospice
KW - Palliative care
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85151866823&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S1478951523000275
DO - 10.1017/S1478951523000275
M3 - Review article
C2 - 36971027
AN - SCOPUS:85151866823
SN - 1478-9515
VL - 36
JO - Palliative and Supportive Care
JF - Palliative and Supportive Care
IS - 2
ER -