Palliative Care in the Health System of Iran: A Review of the Present Status and the Future Challenges

Abstract

Based on Bloomberg's ranking, Iran has been ranked as the 45 th country in the world in terms of effective health system. The Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME) is responsible for the health stewardship and centralized sovereignty. The activities of this ministry have shown improved health status over the past few decades (Rafiei et al., 2015). Nevertheless, the health system of Iran faces major challenges. The major challenges of the health system of Iran include increasing the elderly population, increasing non-communicable diseases (NCDs), changing lifestyle, as well as increasing health costs, maintaining and increasing quality of care, and patients' place of death and

Developing a Model for the Establishment of the Hospice Care Delivery System for Iranian Adult Patients With Cancer

“…In regard with academic education and the expected skills and competencies, according to the experts, the development of the specialized discipline, the fellowship course, and master’s degree program for hospice care are not mandatory. Holding short-term hospice care skill training courses to provide specialist manpower obtained higher feasibility, which is in line with the policies adopted in other countries around the world and even in other Middle Eastern countries ( Barasteh et al, 2020 ).…”

Current state of palliative care in iran and related issues: A narrative review

“…The important components and findings of final included articles are presented in Table 2 . Results of the study showed that included studies had a focus on different patients/participants including cancer,[ 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 ] hemodialysis,[ 45 ] heart failure,[ 46 47 ] chronic disease,[ 48 ] chronic pain,[ 49 ] and with anonymous groups. [ 50 51 52 53 54 55 ] Several provinces/cities were engaged in the studies including Tehran,[ 12 13 14 15 17 20 21 24 25 26 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 37 39 40 41 42 43 48 , 51 , 52 Isfahan,[ 22 27 28 …”

“…[ 23 ] Majority of studies had quantitative approach, including interventional,[ 17 18 19 22 23 29 31 33 35 44 47 49 54 ] descriptive,[ 20 39 41 42 50 53 ] and correlational-analytical. [ 37 45 46 51 ] This was then followed by qualitative[ 12 13 14 15 16 21 24 25 26 27 30 32 34 36 40 43 48 52 ] and mixed methods. [ 28 38 55 ] In quantitative interventional PC studies, a range of medical-surgical,[ 17 18 19 23 29 31 33 37 ] educational,[ 44 49 54 ] and psycho-spiritual[ 22 35 ] managements were used as an independent variable.…”

“…Qualitative research was also an important portion of palliative research recognized in this review either in the shape of a single study or in combination with a quantitative arm as a mixed-methods research. This indicates the growing interest of researchers particularly nurse's researchers to qualitatively explore palliative concept and related components,[ 12 14 24 25 52 ] current and future challenges,[ 13 16 34 36 48 ] or physio-psycho-spiritual/symptom palliation[ 32 40 43 ] in an Iranian context. Also, attempts were made to mine health care perceptions[ 15 30 ] and even empower them.…”

Transitional Cancer Care Program from Hospital to Home in the Health Care System of Iran

“…In this program, all levels of health care services can be offered as a special package with different age groups and health conditions. They can be provided in 24 hours/7 days or intermittently for patients at home (Barasteh et al, 2020). In Naylor's model the home health care nurse, has a supportive role and performs home visits to ensure the continuity of care after the discharge (Naylor, 2004).…”