Health Care Personnel’s Perspectives on Quality of Palliative Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic – A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Purpose

The provision of high-quality palliative care is challenging, especially during a pandemic like COVID-19. The latter entailed major consequences for health care systems and health care personnel (HCP) in both specialist and community health care services, in Norway and worldwide. The aim of this study was to explore how the HCP perceived the quality of palliative care in nursing homes, medical care units, and intensive care units during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

This study had a cross-sectional design. A total of 290 HCP from Norway participated in the study (RR = 25.8%) between October and December 2021. The questionnaire comprised items concerning respondents’ demographics and quality of care, the latter measured by the short form of the Quality from the Patient’s Perspective—Palliative Care instrument, adapted for HCP. The STROBE checklist was used.

Results

This study shows that the HCP scored subjective importance as higher in all dimensions, items and single items than their perception of the actual care received. This could indicate a need for improvement in all areas. Information about medication, opportunity to participate in decisions about medical and nursing care and continuity regarding receiving help from the same physician and nurse are examples of areas for improvement.

Conclusion

Study results indicate that HCP from nursing homes, medical care units, and intensive care units perceived that quality of palliative care provided was not in line with what they perceived to be important for the patient. This indicate that it was challenging to provide high-quality palliative care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords:

• COVID-19 pandemic
• health care personnel perspective
• palliative care
• quality of care

Abbreviations

HCP, health care personnel; QPP-PC, Quality from Patients’ Perspective – Palliative Care; RN, registered nurse; RR, response rate.

Data Sharing Statement

The dataset generated and/or analyzed in this study is not publicly available but is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Ethics Approval and Informed Consent

Approval was obtained from the Norwegian Centre for Research Data SIKT (NSD) (Reference number: 838156 and 634351), the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (dnr 2021-01623), the local data protection officer for the specialist health care services, and the head of the departments of the included care contexts. The study was conducted according to the principles of ethical research as laid out in the Helsinki Declaration.³⁵ The respondents were given written and verbal information about the aim of the study, the voluntary nature of participation, and the right to withdraw at any time before data were analyzed, with no need for explanation. Returning the completed questionnaire was considered to represent the respondents’ consent to participate in the study.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all the HCP who participated in the study and Åse Espelund for help with valuable feedback about the questionnaire and help recruiting participants.

Author Contributions

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Norwegian Regional Foundation (grant no. 321741) and AFA Försäkring (grant no. DNR 200393). The funding bodies had no role in the design of the study, nor in the data collection, analysis, or interpretation.