Non-specialist palliative care is care that is informed by the knowledge and principles of palliative care. However, from the healthcare literature, there appears to be a growing number of terms and interpretations of how non-specialist palliative care is understood in practice and therefore measured. This study aims to develop a core set of clinical care provision indicators for non-specialist palliative care for use in the acute care hospital setting.
This study has four sequential phases. Firstly, the different ways non-specialist palliative care is understood, including determination of the key attributes of this type of care will be examined through a principle-based concept analysis. In phase 2, a systematic review will be conducted to examine the experiences of healthcare providers in applying non-specialist palliative care in practice, including determination of barriers and facilitators to care, and key aspects of care from the perspectives of those providing care. The application, implementation and key aspects of non-specialist palliative care in the Irish healthcare context, from the perspective of key informants (users, healthcare providers, policy makers, etc.) will be explored through qualitative interviews in phase 3. The findings from phases 1-3 will inform an initial list of clinical care provision indicators. These indicators will be used in an eDelphi survey (phase 4), to develop, through international consensus, a minimum set of core clinical care provision indicators for non-specialist palliative care in the acute care hospital setting
This research will complement recent Irish policy initiatives including the Palliative Care Competence Framework, thereby enabling acute care hospitals to assess their performance at organisation level, in relation to non-specialist palliative care policy implementation. The project will reflect palliative care as encompassing, but moving beyond end of life care and thus addressing the palliative care needs of patients earlier in their disease trajectories.
