Development of palliative care services in Turkey.

INTRODUCTION: Palliative care (PC) is a holistic philosophy of care that can only be obtained through the awareness of public and healthcare professionals, PC training and good integration into the health system. Depending on health system structures, there are differences in PC models and organisations in various countries. This study is designed to evaluate the current status of PC services in Turkey, which is strongly supported by national health policies. METHODS: The data were collected through official correspondence with the Ministry of Health, Provincial Directorate of Health and hospital authorities. Numbers of patients who received inpatient PC, the number of hospital beds, diagnosis of disease, duration of hospitalisation, the first three symptoms as the cause of hospitalisation, opioid use, place of discharge and mortality rates were evaluated. RESULTS: A total of 48,953 patients received inpatient PC support in 199 PC centres with 2,429 beds over a 26-month period. The most frequent diagnosis for hospitalisation was cancer (35%), and the most common symptom was pain (25%). Opioids were used in 26.7% of patients. CONCLUSION: Steps should be taken for PC training and providing continuity through organisations outside the hospital and home care.

Determining nurses' perceptions of patient safety culture in palliative care centres.

Background: Palliative care patients often do not have decision-making capacity at the end of life so this patient group is vulnerable to violations of patient safety.Aim: To determine the attitudes of nurses in palliative care centres in Turkey towards the patient safety culture and to identify factors affecting these.Method: A descriptive, cross-sectional design using self-report questionnaires was used.Results: The mean Patient Safety Culture Scale points of the whole group were 2.91 ± 0.44. In the sub-dimensions of the scale, the highest points were determined in Employee Training (2.99 ± 0.51) and the lowest in Unexpected Events and Error Reporting (2.81 ± 0.54).Conclusions: Patient safety culture is related to nurses' working conditions and the attitude of management towards errors, etc. The results of this study will provide a contribution to the development of healthcare and healthcare training policies for critical units vulnerable to patient safety violations.