Nursing Palliative Care for Elderly Surgical Patients: A Scoping Review

Introduction: The discussion on palliative care in high-tech environments and interventional practice represents one of the various aspects to be considered in the challenge of providing a continuum of wellness in living and dying for the elderly. Objective: To map and identify the existing works in the literature on nursing actions that focus on palliative care for elderly patients in surgical hospitalization settings. Materials and methods: This scoping review was conducted on eight databases, following the Joanna Briggs Institute and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review-Scoping Review guidelines. The following descriptors were used: nursing care; palliative care; elderly; surgery. The inclusion criteria were the following: primary research, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and clinical trials. The search was performed in three stages: database listing / pilot test; broad search/application of the “PCC” strategy (population, concept, context); and full reading of the content. A total of 509 productions were retrieved and then managed using the Rayyan® software, of which 13 studies were selected. The protocol was registered in the Open Science Framework. Results: The total population consisted of 10,417 people aged from 60 to 109. The most frequent interventions included the physical dimension, for symptomatic control; the cultural dimension, in which the dilemmas present in an environment with a high expectation for recovery and rigid interventionist protocols were highlighted, as well as the communication dimension, which is a basic tool of palliative care. Conclusions: Elderly people with serious conditions can benefit from palliative care in the perioperative setting. However, there is a need for training nurses in pain management, empowerment to participate in ethical decisions, and training for better communication. It should be noted that evidence on interventions to improve palliative care is still limited by methodological flaws, so rigorous evaluations are needed to measure significant results for patients and care.