Healthcare professionals’ representation toward optimal palliative care provision for COPD patients: a cross-sectional survey
Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a condition causing chronic physical symptoms, psychological burdens, as well as social consequences. This contributes to a major decrease in quality of life (QoL). Palliative care (PC) is a person-centered approach intended to relieve phys...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/17534666251341748 |
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| author | Filipa Alexandra Baptista Peixoto Befecadu Paola Gasche Dan Adler Ivan Guerreiro Sophie Pautex Lisa Hentsch |
| author_facet | Filipa Alexandra Baptista Peixoto Befecadu Paola Gasche Dan Adler Ivan Guerreiro Sophie Pautex Lisa Hentsch |
| author_sort | Filipa Alexandra Baptista Peixoto Befecadu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a condition causing chronic physical symptoms, psychological burdens, as well as social consequences. This contributes to a major decrease in quality of life (QoL). Palliative care (PC) is a person-centered approach intended to relieve physical, psychological, social, and spiritual suffering. Despite international practice guidelines, patients with COPD have limited access to PC, mostly during end-of-life (EoL) care. It is therefore important to explore healthcare professionals’ (HPs) point of view about PC to improve access for COPD patients to PC. Objectives: This study aimed to describe the perceptions of HPs working with COPD patients in Switzerland in different settings on PC provision, implementation, access, and organization. Additionally, we aimed to identify gaps, barriers, training needs, and solutions for HPs related to PC needs. Design: This is a cross-sectional survey study with quantitative and open-ended questions. Methods: We used an electronic survey sent to HPs working with patients suffering from COPD in the inpatient, outpatient, and home-based settings. Results: A total of 56 out of 98 participants (57%) answered the questionnaire of which 41.1% were nurses. 47.2% of participants were uncertain about the good timing of addressing COPD patients to PC and did it after several acute exacerbations, during EoL, or at the request of the patient. 45.5% did not know the availability of a local specialized PC. Lack of skills/training was identified as one of the hindering factors to discuss EoL (42.9% N = 56). Conclusion: Despite recognizing the importance of PC, several barriers were identified, including a lack of knowledge about when to initiate a PC and limited utilization of tools for identifying PC needs. Multidisciplinary teamwork and the identification of a nurse coordinator could improve earlier referrals to PC and improve QoL for COPD patients. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-be01f0a8ca4f4e78aea01ada7a98f387 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1753-4666 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease |
| spelling | doaj-art-be01f0a8ca4f4e78aea01ada7a98f3872025-08-20T03:05:29ZengSAGE PublishingTherapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease1753-46662025-05-011910.1177/17534666251341748Healthcare professionals’ representation toward optimal palliative care provision for COPD patients: a cross-sectional surveyFilipa Alexandra Baptista Peixoto BefecaduPaola GascheDan AdlerIvan GuerreiroSophie PautexLisa HentschBackground: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a condition causing chronic physical symptoms, psychological burdens, as well as social consequences. This contributes to a major decrease in quality of life (QoL). Palliative care (PC) is a person-centered approach intended to relieve physical, psychological, social, and spiritual suffering. Despite international practice guidelines, patients with COPD have limited access to PC, mostly during end-of-life (EoL) care. It is therefore important to explore healthcare professionals’ (HPs) point of view about PC to improve access for COPD patients to PC. Objectives: This study aimed to describe the perceptions of HPs working with COPD patients in Switzerland in different settings on PC provision, implementation, access, and organization. Additionally, we aimed to identify gaps, barriers, training needs, and solutions for HPs related to PC needs. Design: This is a cross-sectional survey study with quantitative and open-ended questions. Methods: We used an electronic survey sent to HPs working with patients suffering from COPD in the inpatient, outpatient, and home-based settings. Results: A total of 56 out of 98 participants (57%) answered the questionnaire of which 41.1% were nurses. 47.2% of participants were uncertain about the good timing of addressing COPD patients to PC and did it after several acute exacerbations, during EoL, or at the request of the patient. 45.5% did not know the availability of a local specialized PC. Lack of skills/training was identified as one of the hindering factors to discuss EoL (42.9% N = 56). Conclusion: Despite recognizing the importance of PC, several barriers were identified, including a lack of knowledge about when to initiate a PC and limited utilization of tools for identifying PC needs. Multidisciplinary teamwork and the identification of a nurse coordinator could improve earlier referrals to PC and improve QoL for COPD patients.https://doi.org/10.1177/17534666251341748 |
| spellingShingle | Filipa Alexandra Baptista Peixoto Befecadu Paola Gasche Dan Adler Ivan Guerreiro Sophie Pautex Lisa Hentsch Healthcare professionals’ representation toward optimal palliative care provision for COPD patients: a cross-sectional survey Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease |
| title | Healthcare professionals’ representation toward optimal palliative care provision for COPD patients: a cross-sectional survey |
| title_full | Healthcare professionals’ representation toward optimal palliative care provision for COPD patients: a cross-sectional survey |
| title_fullStr | Healthcare professionals’ representation toward optimal palliative care provision for COPD patients: a cross-sectional survey |
| title_full_unstemmed | Healthcare professionals’ representation toward optimal palliative care provision for COPD patients: a cross-sectional survey |
| title_short | Healthcare professionals’ representation toward optimal palliative care provision for COPD patients: a cross-sectional survey |
| title_sort | healthcare professionals representation toward optimal palliative care provision for copd patients a cross sectional survey |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/17534666251341748 |
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