Difficulties Faced by Physicians Working at Facilities without Palliative Care Specialists in Providing Palliative Care to Patients with Cancer

Arisa OHTA; Miwa AOKI; Sena YAMAMOTO; Ayumi TAKAO; Saori TAMURA; Yoshiyuki KIZAWA; Harue ARAO

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Difficulties Faced by Physicians Working at Facilities without Palliative Care Specialists in Providing Palliative Care to Patients with Cancer

VernacularTitle:緩和ケアの専門家が不在の施設に所属する医師が抱くがん患者への緩和ケア提供上の困難
Author: Arisa OHTA ¹ ; Miwa AOKI ¹ ; Sena YAMAMOTO ¹ ; Ayumi TAKAO ² ; Saori TAMURA ¹ ; Yoshiyuki KIZAWA ³ ; Harue ARAO ¹
Author Information

1. Division of Health Sciences, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine
2. School of Nursing, Osaka Metropolitan University
3. Department of Palliative and Supportive Care, Institute of Medicine, University of Tsukuba
Keywords: palliative care; consultation; physicians; difficulty; community medicine
From:Palliative Care Research 2024;19(4):307-316
CountryJapan
Language:Japanese
Abstract: Objectives: This study aimed to describe the difficulties faced by physicians in providing palliative care to patients with cancer in facilities without palliative care specialists. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 physicians involved in cancer treatment who were affiliated with facilities having no palliative care specialists such as Diplomate or Board Certification of the Specialty Board of Palliative Medicine of the Japanese Society for Palliative Medicine. The interview data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The participants had “difficulties in palliative care consultation” because they could not consult with specialists or medical staff at their own facility, when immediate response to cancer symptoms was required. This was partly due to “difficulties in regional cooperation”. In addition, the participants had “difficulties in alleviation of symptoms” for highly complex symptoms of patients with cancer. Behind these difficulties, there was “difficulties in foundation of providing palliative care for individual physicians” including limited time available to the participants. Conclusion: These findings show that there is a necessity to establish a continuous external consultation system for specialists to respond to the immediacy of changes in symptoms and highly complex symptoms.