Dificultades y barreras encontradas por los profesionales sanitarios en la atención de pacientes paliativos en un distrito sanitario.

Objective: To know the difficulties and barriers found by health professionals for assistance to people in palliative care, in a health district. Design: Cross-sectional descriptive observational design. Location: Regional hospital and primary care centers of a health district. Participants: 118 health professionals from these centers: Internists, emergency physicians and family doctors; as well as nurses from the same healthcare areas. Main measurements: sociodemographic and professional variables were collected on the training and experience in palliative care through a survey, as well as the items of the Scale of Difficulties in Palliative Care (PCDS). Results: A total of 118 professionals were included, with an average age of 42.2 years, 57.6% being women. Palliative care limited training and the difficulty of accessing information at home were the greatest barriers found by the professionals, with a range observed between 2.27 and 3.26. No statistically significant differences are found when studying the perceived difficulties according to the professional category. In the comparison of care settings, there are differences (p=0.03), with greater difficulties being detected in the emergency department, with the emergency physician having the greatest difficulty compared to the internist (p<0.01). Among the nurses of the three care areas, no differences are identified. Conclusions: Emergency physicians and nurses were the professionals who experienced the greatest difficulties in providing palliative care in their care practice, while the internists were the ones who described the least difficulties.