Challenges and Innovations in Hospice Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review.

In addition to addressing nursing and medical needs, the social needs of patients within hospice care require assessment (i.e., relationships, isolation, loneliness, societal inclusion or exclusion, negotiating adequate formal and informal support, or living with a life-limiting condition). The objectives of this scoping review are to examine the challenges of adult patients in receipt of hospice care during the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify innovative changes to care during the pandemic. The methodology of the scoping review follows the Joanna Briggs Institute framework developed in 2015. The context included hospice services (inpatient, outpatient and community). In August 2022, PubMed and SAGE journals were searched from 2020 onwards for studies published in English, which focused on COVID-19, hospice, social, support and challenges. Titles and abstracts were independently screened by two reviewers against agreed criteria. Fourteen studies were included. Data were independently extracted by authors. Emerging themes were loss due to COVID-19 restrictions, challenges for staff, barriers to communication and transition to Telemedicine, and positive effects of the pandemic. Pivoting to Tele-medicine and restricting visitors reduced the risk of spreading coronavirus but resulted in patients being socially isolated from loved ones, and a reliance on technology to have sensitive conversations.

The impact of COVID-19 on palliative care social work: An online survey by a European Association of Palliative Care Task Force.

BACKGROUND: The SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19) pandemic affected the delivery of health and social care services globally. However, little is known about how palliative care social work services were impacted. AIM: The aim of this study was to capture and analyse data from palliative care social workers who provided professional support in a range of settings across 21 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey-based design was used for this empirical study and this paper primarily focuses on the quantitative responses. SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Participants, palliative care social workers, were drawn internationally via members of the EAPC Social Work Task Force and the World Hospice Palliative Care Social Work network. RESULTS: We received 362 survey responses from 21 countries. Most (79%) respondents worked with adults in in-patient units or hospitals. The number of referrals during COVID-19 increased more in non-European countries, compared to European countries. The full range of social work services could no longer be delivered, existing services changed and 65.3% of participants reported higher levels of pressure during the pandemic, which was linked to higher levels of staff absence and additional duties. For many respondents (40.8%), this included facilitating online communication between patients and their families. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that restrictions to limit the spread of COVID-19 resulted in adaptations to service delivery, increased pressure on staff and moral distress, like other health and social care professions. All members of the palliative team need support and supervision to ensure effective interdisciplinary working and team cohesion.

External support factors utilized by patients in coping with cancer: a European perspective.

PURPOSE: The article presents the results of research on psychosocial aspects of living with cancer in the Slovak Republic focusing on hospitalized and outpatient cancer patients in treatment during the curative stage of the disease. Assessing cancer patient's interest in receiving help from individual members of a multidisciplinary team was a part of the research. METHODS: The research was done through a questionnaire designed to focus on individual psychosocial aspects of cancer treatment. The research sample included 67 hospitalized patients and 61 outpatients. Execution of research was conducted in the individual clinical workplaces. RESULTS: When calculating the interest of cancer patients in spiritual counseling during oncological treatment, hospitalized patients indicated significant interest (p = .014). Similarly, hospitalized patients indicated more interest in using psychological counseling (p = .040) as well as in consultation with the social worker with a significant difference of (p = .017). Interest in the aid of a physical therapist was exhibited more significantly with hospitalized patients (p = .000). Significant interest in hospitalized patients using additional members of the multidisciplinary team was statistically significant (p = .017). Outpatient cancer patients indicated significant interest in finding information about medical conditions on the Internet (p = .000). For items addressing an interest in meeting people with cancer in self-help groups, there was no significant difference between outpatient and hospital patients (p = .298) as with talking to other patients who had cancer (p = .207). CONCLUSION: External support factors are important in helping patients cope with cancer. Health professionals can help patients mitigate the various difficulties associated with cancer.

Attitude of society towards people with mental illness: The result of national survey of the Slovak population.

AIMS: Our survey has been aimed at identifying the society attitude towards people with mental illness in Slovakia. METHOD: Selected group comprised 1,624 adult respondents with 18 years of age as the bottom limit. We applied reduced 26-item Community Attitudes Toward Mentally Ill Scale (CAMI) to the survey of the society attitude towards people with mental illness. RESULTS: Average score reached by the respondents reached 94.0800 points, indicating lower stigmatization rate than presumed. Further investigation revealed prejudice and stigmatizing attitudes at significant part of the population. The survey confirmed statistically significant differences at the attitudes in the terms of gender ( t = -6.559, p = .000), age within the categories (χ2 = 20.358, p = .000), education ( F = 9.137, p = .000), socio-economic status (χ2 = 50.487, p = .000) and occupation (χ2 = 47.989, p = .000). We also confirmed statistically significant relation between the attitude and age (-.085**, p = .001). CONCLUSION: The survey confirmed rather neutral up to slightly positive attitude of the Slovak population towards people with mental illness. Existence of attitudes burdened with fear was revealed in some cases, indicating the need for continuous education of the society in this subject matter.

The Effect of Social Support and Meaning of Life on the Quality-of-Life Care for Terminally Ill Patients.

This study examines the effect of 2 indicators on quality of life (QOL): social support and meaning of life for terminally ill patients. These 2 indicators are very important from a psychological and spiritual point of view. The findings suggest that there is a statistically significant correlation between meaning of life and QOL (r = .610, P < .001). Results have also demonstrated that more frequent patient visits increase the sense of life fulfillment for dying patients. A significant relationship exists in survival of life meaningfulness and satisfaction with social support. In conclusion, experiencing one's life as meaningful is positively related to the well-being for dying patients. Social support provided by a close relative had a positive influence on the patient's meaning of life and overall life satisfaction.