Providing good palliative care for everyone: (de-)implementation by nurses and care assistants

Every year, about 170.000 people die in the Netherlands, 65% of them after a period of illness. These people and their loved ones qualify for palliative care: care that focuses on quality of life and adequate symptom management.

Aim

To provide good palliative care, it is important that nurses, certified care assistants and nursing specialists recognise this phase, have knowledge about symptoms and to know whether or not to administer nutrition and fluids. Especially in the hospital, where care is focused on cure or extension of life, these palliative care interventions are often not well implemented.

Approach

In this project, a questionnaire survey and interviews will be conducted on 3 hospital wards to investigate whether nurses, certified care assistants and nursing specialists have sufficient palliative care knowledge and what makes (not) implementing certain palliative care interventions difficult or easier. Based on these findings, recommendations will be formulated and tested to optimise care for people in the last phase of life in the hospital.