engleski

Mobile palliative teams and patient content with palliative care - experience from University hospital for tumors

As oncologists, we are often confronted with hard decisions when it comes to our patients and treatment choices. At some point in cancer treatment we reach a stage when active treatment for our patients is not possible and we need to provide the best possible support in the terminal phase of their life. Palliative care is a medical discipline that offers medical and nursing care for people with life-limiting illness. It provides relief of patients main symptoms which include pain, malnutrition, psychological stress and improves overall quality of life for patients and their families. In Croatia, there are Mobile palliative teams (MPT), including a doctor and a nurse, that provide care to terminal patients in their own home. Unfortunately, MPT aren’t available in all parts of Croatia, and there are many patients who are not familiar with MPT. Aim of this study was to assess the quality and accessibility of MPT. We looked up all the patients that had attended our MDT in University Hospital for Tumors from May through August 2017, who were no longer candidates for active cancer treatment. We called them and asked several questions about their quality of life and palliative care. Some patients had died in the meantime. Finally, we were able to contact 52 patients willing to take part in this research. 41% of our patients were familiar with MPT. Only 18% of our patients were under the care of MPT regularly, 23% used it on occasion while 59% never used their services and care. There was a large difference between the population in cities, especially Zagreb, and other dislocated places. Only 27% of our patients rated their pain therapy as adequate, 59% rated their pain to be relatively under control but not completely, while 14% admit ed their pain was not adequately managed. As far as psychological help, almost 80% of our patients have not received any psychological help, but majority of them have not even reached out for it. Our research showed that awareness about palliative care is still inadequate and that our patients are not informed about MPT and the possibilities it provides. MPT are available to terminal patients and are better organised in cities then in rural areas. This research showed that we need to take better care of our patients at the end of their lives and allow them a more dignified and comfortable death.

hrčak, hrcak, znanstveni časopisi, hrvatski, scientific journals, croatian

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