Emergency palliative care needs and feelings from the perspective of medical and nursing staff: a qualitative study
10.3760/cma.j.cn115682-20250627-03393
- VernacularTitle:基于医护人员视角急诊安宁疗护需求和感受的质性研究
- Author:
Aidi LIU
1
;
Chang ZHOU
;
Yuedan XU
;
Aiwu ZHU
Author Information
1. 温州市中心医院急诊科，温州 325000
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Emergency department;
Palliative care;
Medical staff;
Phenomenological research;
Role conflict
- From:
Chinese Journal of Modern Nursing
2025;31(28):3799-3803
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective:To explore the needs and feelings of emergency palliative care from the perspective of medical and nursing staff.Methods:Purposeful sampling was used to recruit 23 emergency medical and nursing staff with experience in end-of-life care from two Class Ⅲ Grade A hospitals in Wenzhou City between September and October 2024. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the respondents. Results were analyzed using NVivo 12 software.Results:Emergency patients at the end of life and their families had immediate needs, including acute symptom control, pain management, and respiratory distress treatment needs, urgent decision support needs, cultural conflict needs, immediate emotional comfort needs and alexithymia. Medical and nursing staff faced numerous obstacles when providing palliative care in emergency settings, such as role conflicts and skill gaps among emergency medical and nursing staff, lack of dedicated palliative care areas and noisy environments that hindered communication due to physical space limitations in the Emergency Department, short decision-making time and difficulties in referral due to limited emergency room time window, the multidisciplinary collaboration in the emergency department lags behind and the response of the specialized team was delayed, and lack of information sharing between emergency departments and wards.Conclusions:Emergency palliative care is characterized by both urgent needs and implementation barriers. It is necessary to optimize the physical space of the Emergency Department, establish a rapid decision mechanism for medical and nursing staff, strengthen multidisciplinary collaboration, and conduct professional training to build a palliative care model suitable for emergency situations.
