| Abstract [eng] |
Relevance of the research. Recently, the need for palliative care has been growing rapidly. It is predicted that the need for palliative care will increase due to the aging of the population, the increasing number of diseases, and the provision of early palliative care will become more important. Despite the expected forecasts, early palliative care is not sufficiently developed, the opportunities to receive quality early palliative care are relatively small. Both in Lithuania and in the world, there remains a huge unmet need for early palliative care. The purpose of the research – to analyze early palliative care and its impact on the quality of services provided. Research tasks: 1. To evaluate the principles of providing early palliative care; 2. To examine the factors influencing the quality of early palliative care services; 3. To analyze nurses’ attitudes about the influence of early palliative care on the quality of services provided. Research methods. Analysis of scientific literature, legal acts, qualitative research – interview. Research results. The results of the study revealed the novelty that the daily work of a nurse related to the provision of early palliative care to patients includes preserving seriousness and peace, reducing the patient’s confusion, increasing the patient’s activeness, promoting activity. Nurses meet the needs of patients with life-threatening illnesses for compassion, peace, and feeling valued. One of the most important elements of the quality of early palliative care services is creating a sense of need for the patient, ensuring comfort. It contributes the most to the quality of services provided to patients with life-threatening diseases acknowledging the patient, supporting him, managing conflicts, showing compassion to the patient. Early palliative care increases the sense of security and self-confidence of patients suffering from a life-threatening disease. Conclusions. 1. The daily work of a nurse in providing early palliative care to patients includes monitoring the patient, providing assistance to the patient, meeting individual needs, relieving pain and ensuring timely administration of medications. The most important responsibilities of a nurse in providing early palliative care are related to improving the patient’s quality of life, reducing the patient’s suffering, providing quality nursing services, performing medical procedures, early pain treatment, patient care and health care. An early palliative care nurse meets the basic care needs of life-threatening patients such as pain relief, voiding/urinating, breathing, feeding, psychological and awareness needs; 2. The most important elements of the quality of early palliative care services are the provision of patient-centered care, ensuring the safety of the patient and the communication of the medical staff with the patient. The quality of early palliative care services is most influenced by such factors as providing the necessary information and assistance to the patient, meeting the patient’s needs, supporting the patient and communicating with the patient. 3. Early palliative care influences the quality of services provided to patients with life-threatening diseases, as it improves the quality of care and the health status of patients, enables better satisfaction of patients’ needs, and increases patient satisfaction with services. The possibilities of integrating early palliative care into patient care are mostly limited by false beliefs prevailing in the society, delayed receipt of referral, lack of patient awareness and lack of specialist competencies. |
