Dying in the hospital setting: A meta-synthesis identifying the elements of end-of-life care that patients and their families describe as being important - a podcast by SAGE Publications Ltd.

This episode features Claudia Virdun (Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Ultimo, NSW, Australia) who describes a study which aimed to gain a richer and deeper understanding of elements of end-of-life care that consumers consider most important within the hospital setting.

The study was a meta-synthesis (review of all the qualitative research on a given subject) of consumer narratives reporting what they considered important elements of end of life care. Sixteen studies were included. Synthesis yielded 7 patient and 10 family themes including 6 common themes: (1) expert care, (2) effective communication and shared decision-making, (3) respectful and compassionate care, (4) adequate environment for care, (5) family involvement and (6) financial affairs. Maintenance of sense of self was the additional patient theme, while the four additional family themes were as follows: (1) maintenance of patient safety, (2) preparation for death, (3) care extending to the family after patient death and (4) enabling patient choice at the end of life.

The take home message is that patients and carers have been consistent in the factors that they consider important in end of life care. Systems are needed to enable optimal end-of-life care, in accordance with consumer priorities, and embedded into routine hospital care. Full paper available from: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269216316673547

If you would like to record a podcast about your published (or accepted) Palliative Medicine paper, please contact Dr Amara Nwosu: anwosu@liverpool.ac.uk

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