‘There’s this big fear around palliative care because it’s connected to death and dying’: A qualitative exploration of the perspectives of undergraduate students on the role of the speech and language therapist in palliative care

Abstract

Background: Speech and language therapy in palliative care is a developing discipline of clinical practice. Research literature has highlighted that undergraduate palliative care education in speech and language therapy is inconsistent and inadequate. However, limited research has been carried out to date in relation to student speech and language therapists and palliative care. Aim: To explore the role of speech and language therapists in palliative care from the perspective of speech and language therapy students in Ireland. Design: A qualitative descriptive research study was conducted, involving focus group interviews. Setting/participants: Purposive sampling was used to recruit 12 student speech and language therapists from one university site for this study. Undergraduate second, third and fourth year students were eligible for inclusion. Results: This study revealed that undergraduate student speech and language therapists collectively agree that there is a role for speech and language therapy in palliative care. Although students acknowledged that speech and language therapists can make a positive difference to patients’ lives, and academic lectures were positively received, insufficient exposure to palliative care has resulted in fear, uncertainty and a lack of confidence amongst student speech and language therapists. Conclusions: A greater emphasis on palliative care is needed in undergraduate speech and language therapy education to ensure confidence and competency development. An exploration of student speech and language therapists’ experiences in a specialist palliative care unit would be advantageous to determine the appropriateness of this setting for clinical placements.

Healthcare Professionals’ Attitudes towards and Knowledge and Understanding of Paediatric Palliative Medicine (PPM) and Its Meaning within the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU): A Summative Content Analysis in a Tertiary Children’s Hospital in Scotland—“An In Vitro Study”

“…Similar findings were illustrated in a recent study showing delays to palliative care input related to clinical uncertainty, often encountered in children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions [24]. Stigma associated with palliative care is not a new finding, as previous research [10,17,21,23,[25][26][27] involving a series of different healthcare groups, ranging from allied healthcare professionals to doctors, has come to similar conclusions. Barriers preventing referral in these studies included insufficient exposure to palliative care, discomfort discussing the inevitable outlook, negative family attitudes and therapeutic failure.…”

The use of natural language processing in palliative care research: A scoping review

“…Although thematic analysis has been validated 1 for qualitative research and is widely used in palliative care, 2 this method is time-consuming and subject to data collection/ interpretation biases. 3 Due to its inherently flexible nature, this method can lead to inconsistency and lack of coherence when deriving themes from research data.…”