Mar 30, 2022
The EAPC published recommendations on standards and norms in
palliative care for Europe in 2009. The Delphi technique is a well
recognised way to elicit the views of stakeholders and obtain
consensus. There are a diversity of international and national
definitions and concepts in palliative care which makes
comparison between countries and delivery of health care
complex.
The majority (122) of standards and norms in five domains
(definitions of palliative care, philosophy, levels, delivery,
services) in palliative care in Europe have remained unchanged
over the last decade. 13 new standards and norms reached consensus,
relating to emerging specialisms such as neonatal, geriatric
and dementia palliative care, and recommendations for better access
to national information sources and the use of digital health
records.
New recommendations recognise that there are emerging
subspecialisations in palliative care in the fields of neonatal
paediatrics and geriatric medicine indicating that care
extends across the lifespan. New recommendations also have
implications for service quality improvements including
enhancing open visiting, availability of essential medicines,
better information exchange, including digital medical records and
access to specialist equipment.
Future research and clinical care needs to include multiple domains
to assess quality improvements in palliative care.
Full paper available from:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02692163221074547
If you would like to record a podcast about your published (or
accepted) Palliative Medicine paper, please contact Dr Amara
Nwosu:
a.nwosu@lancaster.ac.uk