Staff perceptions concerning barriers and facilitators to end-of-life care in the nursing home.
Although many nursing home residents have chronic, life-limiting conditions, most die without the benefit of palliative care or with palliation delayed until the last days of life. The goal of this study was to determine whether the presence of a comprehensive palliative care program in nursing homes would affect the knowledge and attitudes of the staff. The intervention group was able to identify more problems in delivering palliative care than the control group, but this only reached statistical significance on 2 items. Nevertheless, the current study suggests that the presence of a palliative care program within a nursing home does increase general knowledge of the problems faced in caring for the dying.
Stillman
Diane
D
University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing, Philadelphia, USA.
Strumpf
Neville
N
Capezuti
Elizabeth
E
Tuch
Howard
H
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001293:Attitude to Death; D005260:Female; D005851:Geriatric Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009735:Nursing Homes; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States