If We Build It, Will They Come? Estimating the Need for Community-Based Palliative Care in a Public Health System (S708)

Abstract

The results of this review emphasize a lack of knowledge as a barrier to delivering palliative care. Nurses caring for individuals with heart failure need palliative care knowledge, skills and competencies to ensure that this vulnerable population receives patient centered care. To bring about practice change, education will need to be incorporated into all levels of nursing, including students and practicing nurses.

The impact of public health palliative care interventions on health system outcomes: A systematic review

“…4,5 Yet, low or late access to palliative care persists along with high levels of utilisation of acute health services in the last 6 months of life. [5][6][7][8][9] Timely access to palliative care has presented a significant challenge, constrained by the social and existential influences on choices around care, 10,11 societal knowledge gaps, 12,13 and resource limitations in the face of increasing demand. Discussion about palliative care is frequently avoided by patients and their clinicians, often narrowly understood as 'nursing care for the imminently dying', 10 and in the absence of language for discussing death, perceived by patients as a health system euphemism for death.…”

“…4,5 Yet, low or late access to palliative care persists along with high levels of utilisation of acute health services in the last 6 months of life. 5 –9…”