Background
Chronic heart failure is a complex and multifaceted syndrome characterised by an unpredictable
trajectory, high symptom burden and reduced quality of life. Although palliative care
is recommended, patient, provider and system factors limit access.
Aim
To examine the knowledge, attitudes and perspectives of health care professionals
towards end of life care and palliative care for patients with chronic heart failure.
Design
This is an integrative review.
Data sources
CINAHL, Academic Search Complete and SCOPUS were searched. Specific inclusion criteria
and search terms were used. The integrative review method entailed analysing data
from primary articles using the constant comparison method and then synthesising data.
Results
Twenty-six (26) articles were selected that explored health care professionals’ perspectives
towards end of life care and palliative care. The categories that emerged were grouped
into patient, provider and system issues. Most health care professionals involved
in providing care to heart failure patients have misperceptions of palliative care,
often confusing it with end of life and hospice care. This hinders patients’ access
to palliative care as determining the end of life period in heart failure is difficult.
Conclusions
Exploring health care professionals’ perspectives towards the delivery of end of life
care and palliative care is important for understanding how their practice influences
the delivery of palliative care for heart failure patients. Emphasis on increasing
awareness of the principles of palliative care in the health care community, as well
as addressing organisational issues will improve the care delivered to these patients.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 16, 2018
Accepted:
October 8,
2018
Received in revised form:
August 6,
2018
Received:
April 11,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Australian and New Zealand Society of Cardiac and Thoracic Surgeons (ANZSCTS) and the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
