Palliative care in rural areas - collaboration between district nurses and doctors: an interview study.
BMC Palliat Care
; 22(1): 73, 2023 Jun 15.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37322520
BACKGROUND: Palliative care requires major nursing interventions as well as medical interventions; thus, both district nurses and doctors are vital to the palliative team. Sparsely populated rural areas are characterised by large geographic distances with the nurses and doctors located far away from each other. If collaboration does not work, this can create challenges for district nurses when managing patients' symptoms. The aim of this study was to describe district nurses' experiences of collaborating with doctors-in-charge during palliative home care in sparsely populated rural areas. METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 district nurses. Inductive content analysis was used to analyse the data. RESULTS: The experiences of the district nurses are described under the overarching theme of Experiences of acting as the patient's advocate, which is divided into two categories: Feeling secure in oneself and the other person and Feeling alone when collaboration breaks down. CONCLUSION: Consensus and coherence, or lack thereof, between district nurses and doctors affect how collaboration is experienced. Positive experiences are generated when the district nurse and the doctor share a holistic approach, while collaboration is experienced as dysfunctional when the doctor's decisions are not consistent with what the nurse judges to be beneficial to the patient. An understanding of how collaboration across long distances is experienced in rural areas is necessary to enhance collaboration.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Enfermería de Cuidados Paliativos al Final de la Vida
/
Servicios de Atención de Salud a Domicilio
/
Enfermeras y Enfermeros
Tipo de estudio:
Qualitative_research
Límite:
Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
BMC Palliat Care
Año:
2023
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Suecia
Pais de publicación:
Reino Unido