Dificultades percibidas en atención primaria en el abordaje de los cuidados paliativos

Objective

Describe the difficulties perceived by Primary Care health professionals in approaching Palliative Care and their association with sociodemographic and work characteristics.

Materials and methods

Cross-sectional study was conducted over a sample of 224 primary care workers (doctors and nurses). Perceived difficulties were assessed by means of Palliative Care Difficulties Scale (PCDS), a validated scale that includes five items: team communication, patient and family communication, Palliative Care team support, relief of symptoms and coordination with the community. Sociodemographic and employment characteristics were collected with self-administered questionnaires. To explore the differences in PCDS scale scores according to socio-occupational characteristics, Student's T-test was performed.

Results

Perceived difficulty was moderate (mean score [standard deviation]: 41.7 [8.61]). Specifically, communication with the team, symptom relief and coordination between care levels reported greater perceived difficulty (8.10 [2.46]; 9.90 [2.67] and 10.1 [2.71], respectively). Being over 40 years old, a nursing degree, work experience < 15 years and poor perception of the approach and knowledge of Palliative Care were associated with greater perceived difficulty (P < .05). 79% of the participants expressed a need for training in Palliative Care.

Conclusions

Primary Care professionals have moderate difficulty in approaching Palliative Care, especially in communication between the team, symptom relief, and coordination in the community.