Thoughts of Emergency Physicians about Palliative Care: Evaluation of Awareness

Abstract

Aim: Palliative care is an increasingly important issue in emergency departments worldwide. The present study aimed to evaluate the perspectives and experienced problems of emergency physicians about palliative care. Materials and Methods:A questionnaire that includes main topics of palliative care was prepared, and it was sent through internet access to all emergency physicians who work in Turkey. The whole data were statistically analyzed by Predictive Analytics Software (PASW) 18 and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software 15.0 for Windows.Results: Ninety-five emergency physicians participated in the study. Most respondents reported reported getting no training about palliative care (77%). Most agreed that special training is required to acquire palliative care skills (91%), and 69% of emergency physicians want to get training on palliative care. Conclusion:Increasing awareness about palliative care is important in emergency departments and makes it possible for an early recognition and appropriate management of palliative care patients. The present study not only indicates the importance of education about palliative care but also contributes to increasing awareness on this issue. (JAEM 2015; 14: 75-8)

Evaluation of palliative care patients with different scales in the emergency department and the importance of home healthcare

“…However, our findings suggest that the need for PC is most frequently associated with the terminal period of disease by our society. Public education and briefings on PC can help solve this problem [22]. The Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale data were evaluated in terms of KPS.…”

Is Palliative Care a Perceived Need of Medical Post Graduate Students of Mumbai, India?

“…22,23 In our study , 80% of residents agreed they were confident about breaking bad news,however their competency was not assessed .In the study conducted in Turkey, the competency in giving bad news was assessed in physicians , and 32 of the participants (34%) stated their competence as very good, 51 (54%) stated as good, and 12 (13%) stated as moderate. 11 About 60% of Pakistani doctors thought that they broke bad news properly to the patients; 59% were satisfied with their own performance while dealing with an incurable patient . 9 In our study 62% of post graduate students followed guidelines for pain management but 0% received any training in palliative care.…”

“…Worldwide there are studies about assessing palliative care awareness among health care providers including impact about its educational interventions, however there is limited publishedevidence about similar literature from India . [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] .There is a dearth of similar literature from Maharashtra, which is expected to bear higher burden of palliative care. [19][20][21] .…”

Disaster Training Needs and Expectations Among Turkish Emergency Medicine Physicians – A National Survey

“…Our survey response rate was similar to previous online survey studies for EM physicians in Turkey but lower for national survey studies for the same population. 13,16,19,20 TRH EM residency training programs started later than UH residency programs, and accordingly the majority of the participants declared that they had their residency training at a university hospital.…”