Expanding the Concept of End-of-life Care in Long-term Care: A Scoping Review Exploring the Role of Healthcare Assistants.
Int J Older People Nurs
; 16(2): e12353, 2021 Mar.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33124160
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The context of care provided in long-term care homes is changing, as an increasing number of older adults are entering long-term care with advance stages of illness and higher care needs. Long-term care homes are quickly becoming the place of death for an increasing number of older adults, despite recent literature identifying inadequate and suboptimal levels of end-of-life care. Within long-term care, healthcare assistants represent 60%-70% of the unregulated workforce and provide 70%-90% of the direct care to residents. Research indicates that a high level of uncertainty exists surrounding the role of healthcare assistants in end-of-life care, with numerous studies reporting the role of healthcare assistants to be 'unclear' with varying levels of responsibilities and autonomy.OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this scoping review was to explore healthcare assistants' experiences and perspectives of their role in end-of-life care in long-term care.METHODS:
We applied Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework, with recommendations from Levac and colleagues' guiding principles. Electronic databases and the grey literature were searched for relevant articles. Search concepts included end-of-life care and healthcare assistants. Articles were included in this review if they explored healthcare assistants' experiences or perspectives of providing end-of-life care in long-term care. The peaceful end of life theory by Ruland and Moore (1998) was used to organise data extraction and analysis.RESULTS:
A total of n = 15 articles met the inclusion criteria. The most predominant role-required behaviours reported by healthcare assistants were as follows psychosocial support to significant others, knows the resident's care wishes and physical care with respect and dignity. The most predominant extra-role behaviours reported by healthcare assistants were as follows becoming emotionally involved, acting as extended family and ensuring residents do not die alone.CONCLUSIONS:
Findings from this review expanded the concept of end-of-life care by illustrating the role-required and extra-role behaviours healthcare assistants perform when providing end-of-life care in long-term care. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE Findings from this scoping review highlight the numerous behaviours healthcare assistants perform outside their role description in order to provide end-of-life care to dying residents in long-term care. These findings could inform policymakers and managers of long-term care homes.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Assistência Terminal
/
Assistência de Longa Duração
Tipo de estudo:
Guideline
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Systematic_reviews
Limite:
Aged
/
Humans
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article