How can primary care enhance end-of-life care for liver disease? Qualitative study of general practitioners' perceptions and experiences

Palliative care and end stage liver disease: A survey study comparing perspectives of hepatology and palliative care physicians and clinical scenarios that could require palliative care intervention

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

The prevalence and mortality of chronic liver disease has risen significantly. In end stage liver disease (ESLD) the survival of patients is approximately 2 years. Despite the poor prognosis and high symptom burden of these patients, integration of palliative care is reduced. We aim to analyze the agreement between palliative care and hepatology physicians of clinical scenarios that could require palliative care intervention.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted. Palliative care and hepatology physicians were surveyed. Using a five-point Likert scale, their perceptions of palliative care in ESLD were rated. Their agreement in clinical scenarios that could require palliative care intervention were evaluated. Analyses were conducted to assess any differences by primary role (hepatology vs. palliative care) and length of practice (<10 years vs. 10 years).

RESULTS

A total of 123 responses were obtained: 52% from palliative care and 48% from hepatology. The majority (66.7%) work in the field for up to ten years. There was a great consensus in 4 of the 8 clinical scenarios. In scenarios with less consensus, the area of activity and length of practice influence the reliance of physicians on palliative care. Involvement of palliative care in ESLD was considered "rare" by 30% and 61% consider difficult to predict the prognosis. More than 90% support medical training in both areas of activity.

CONCLUSION

The current involvement of palliative care is considered low, but there are clinical conditions that reveal a clear consensus and there's a unanimous view of the relevance of training.

Stigmatization of drinking patients with liver cancer: The role of socioeconomic status

Patients with liver cancer may face stigmatization due to cancer, alcohol consumption, or both. This study addresses gaps in the existing literature regarding stigmatization of alcohol-related liver cancer patients, particularly its connection with socioeconomic status (SES). The study explores whether the SES of a fictional character with alcohol addiction and liver cancer influences stigma levels reported by participants. Additionally, it investigates how participants' personal characteristics, such as alcohol consumption and healthcare professional status, impact stigmatization. This study aims to provide new insights regarding the role of stigmatization in liver cancer treatment and management, emphasizing in socioeconomic determinants. The method is based on three scenarios describing a woman character with alcohol abuse and liver cancer. The scenarios depicted a woman character with either low, medium or high SES. Each participant (N = 991) was randomly assigned to one of the three scenarios. After reading it, each participant answered questionnaires assessing negative attitudes towards the character. Four scales were used: "Negative attributions about people with health problems", "Causality of cancer", "Controllability of drinking" and "Reluctance to helping behavior". Data were analyzed using ANOVA and t-tests. The scenario describing a character with a low SES significantly received more "Negative attributions about people with health problems" than the character with medium or high SES. Participants having higher alcohol consumption themselves showed lower stigma scores for three out of four scales than participants with lower consumption. In addition, participants identified as health professionals had lower stigma scores regarding the scales "Negative attributions about people with health problems" and "Controllability of drinking", and higher scores for the subscale "Reluctance to helping behavior", compared with non-professionals. A character with low SES received more negative attributions than the one with higher SES. Participants' own alcohol consumption and professional status (being health professional or not), influenced their stigmatizing attitudes.

Exploring provider roles, continuity, and mental models in cirrhosis care: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Advanced cirrhosis results in frequent emergency department visits, hospital admissions and readmissions, and a high risk of premature death. We previously identified and compared differences in the mental models of cirrhosis care held by primary and specialty care physicians and nurse practitioners that may be addressed to improve coordination and transitions in care. The aim of this paper is to further explore how challenges to continuity and coordination of care influence how health care providers adapt in their approaches to and development of mental models of cirrhosis care. METHODS: Cross-sectional formal elicitation of mental models using Cognitive Task Analysis. Purposive and chain-referral sampling took place over 6 months across Alberta for a total of 19 participants, made up of family physicians (n = 8), specialists (n = 9), and cirrhosis nurse practitioners (n = 2). RESULTS: Lack of continuity in cirrhosis care, particularly informational and management continuity, not only hinders health care providers' ability to develop rich mental models of cirrhosis care but may also determine whether they form a patient-centred or task-based mental model, and whether they develop shared mental models with other providers. CONCLUSIONS: The system barriers and gaps that prevent the level of continuity needed to coordinate care for people with cirrhosis lead providers to create and work under mental models that perpetuate those barriers, in a vicious cycle. Understanding how providers approach cirrhosis care, adapt to the challenges facing them, and develop mental models offers insights into how to break that cycle and improve continuity and coordination.

THE AVAILABILITY AND QUALITY OF PALLIATIVE AND HOSPICE CARE ENSURING IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC CONTEXT

OBJECTIVE

The aim: To study the availability, quality and features of outpatient palliative and hospice care (PHC) to the population, including the elderly, in the COVID-19 pandemic context in order to optimize the PHC-mobile-teams service.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Materials and methods: Domestic and foreign literary sources; sociological research results. The research methods: biblio-semantic, sociological (questionnaires), systemic approach and systemic analysis, conventional medical-statistical methods.

RESULTS

Results: Based on the analysis of international regulatory documents, domestic and foreign literary sources, the socio-medical importance of PHC is shown. In Ukraine, as in other countries, the number of elderly people is constantly growing, which leads to an increase in the PHC need. The results of the sociological survey determine: PHC needs in terms of age showed that in Ukraine almost 78.86% of people in need of PHC were aged 60 and over; the most popular (86.0% of responses) were PHC-mobile-teams and home-based services; about 80% of respondents said that pain limited their ability to work and affected on their psycho-emotional state and their quality of life; 86.3% of respondents reported an pain increased after COVID-19. The results of an online survey showed the effectiveness of PHC-mobile-teams service by improving the availability of PHC.

CONCLUSION

Conclusions: To ensure high-quality PHC availability it should be integrated at the Health and Social Care Systems. According to the experience of the Kyiv PHC-mobile-teams service, it significantly increases PHC availability, which is especially important in the COVID-19 pandemic context.

Developing Priorities for Palliative Care Research in Advanced Liver Disease: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Individuals with advanced liver disease (AdvLD), such as decompensated cirrhosis (DC) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), have significant palliative needs. However, little research is available to guide health care providers on how to improve key domains related to palliative care (PC). We sought to identify priority areas for future research in PC by performing a comprehensive literature review and conducting iterative expert panel discussions. We conducted a literature review using search terms related to AdvLD and key PC domains. Individual reviews of these domains were performed, followed by iterative discussions by a panel consisting of experts from multiple disciplines, including hepatology, specialty PC, and nursing. Based on these discussions, priority areas for research were identified. We identified critical gaps in the available research related to PC and AdvLD. We developed and shared five key priority questions incorporating domains related to PC. Conclusion: Future research endeavors focused on improving PC in AdvLD should consider addressing the five key priorities areas identified from literature reviews and expert panel discussions.

A Phenomenological Analysis of Experiences and Practices of Nurses Providing Palliative and End of Life Care

The aim of this study was to describe the experiences and practices of nurses providing palliative and end of life care. The study was conducted in the palliative care unit of a territory hospital in Turkey. The sample consisted of 11 nurses who had been working as palliative care nurses for at least one year. The face to face interview method was used to collect data, with a semi-structured in-depth individual interview. 5 main themes and 24 sub-themes were emerged in relation to the experiences and practices of the nurses. The majority of participant nurses pointed that inadequacy in the number of nurses, secondary nursing care activities, refusal of treatment, cultural and ethical problems were barriers in the provision of nursing care. They frequently experienced ethical issues when caring for end of life patients, and for this reason they felt the need for ethics counselling which they could consult.

Nurses' views and applications on palliative care

PURPOSE

This study was carried out descriptively to determine the view and applications about pallative care of nurses working in a university hospital.

DESIGN AND METHODS

The data were collected with the questionnaire form: "Individual Information Form" and "Views and Appllications on Palliative Care," created by the researchers in line with the literature.

FINDINGS

A total of 96.6% of the nurses evaluated the scope of palliative care as pain relief, and the most common difficulties in care were identified as bad news (88.1%). In all, 22.0% of the nurses talked to the patient and their family about death.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

It is thought that the majority of nurses are not trained in palliative care and their opinions about palliative care are affected by this situation.

Eliciting and Understanding Primary Care and Specialist Mental Models of Cirrhosis Care: A Cognitive Task Analysis Study

BACKGROUND

Gaps in coordination and transitions of care for liver cirrhosis contribute to high rates of hospital readmissions and inadequate quality of care. Understanding the differences in the mental models held by specialty and primary care physicians may help to identify the root causes of problems in the coordination of cirrhosis care.

AIM

To compare and identify differences in the mental models of cirrhosis care held by primary and specialty care physicians and nurse practitioners that may be addressed to improve coordination and transitions.

METHODS

Cross-sectional formal elicitation of mental models using Cognitive Task Analysis. Purposive and chain-referral sampling to select family physicians (n = 8), specialists (n = 9), and cirrhosis-dedicated nurse practitioners (n = 2) across Alberta.

RESULTS

Family physicians do not maintain rich mental models of cirrhosis care. They see cirrhosis patients relatively infrequently, rebuilding their mental models when required (knowledge on demand). They have reactive and patient-need-focused, rather than proactive and system-of-care, mental models. Specialists' mental models are rich but vary widely between patient-centered and task-centered and in the degree to which they incorporate responsibility for addressing system gaps. Nurse practitioners hold patient-centered mental models like specialists but take responsibility for addressing gaps in the system.

CONCLUSIONS

Improving the coordination of cirrhosis care will require infrastructure to design care pathways and work processes that will support family physicians' knowledge-on-demand needs, facilitate primary care-specialist relationships, and deliberately work toward building a shared mental model of responsibilities for addressing medical care and social determinants of health.

Palliative Care in End-Stage Liver Disease Patients Awaiting Liver Transplantation: Review

Introduction

End-stage liver disease (ESLD) is the advanced phase of most liver diseases. The cure is liver transplantation (LT), only available for a minority of patients. This review summarizes the evidence regarding palliative care (PC) in ESLD patients awaiting LT.

Methods

Review of the literature available in Medline, Scopus and Web of Knowledge, with keywords ESLD and PC.

Results

Fifteen of the 230 articles reviewed met the inclusion criteria. Ten main themes were addressed: symptom burden; perspectives of life-sustaining treatment and comfort for patients, families and health professionals; goals of care discussions; patient and family needs; quality of life; PC and survival; referral to PC, barriers and opportunities; integration of PC; outpatient care and cost-effectiveness analysis. The referral of patients to PC was only evaluated in a few studies, all of which reported low referral rates. Better knowledge of how PC professionals can support other professionals was considered important, and also better ways to integrate PC were considered essential.

Conclusion

ESLD patients awaiting LT have a significant need for PC and, despite the insufficient response, were reported to benefit from this type of care. Future research is essential to determine the means to overcome barriers and better integrate PC for ESLD patients awaiting LT.

Perceptions of Palliative Care Nurses Related to Death and Palliative Care Practices

This study has been conducted with the purpose of identifying the perceptions of palliative nurses about death and determining palliative care practices. We conducted qualitative interviews with 23 palliative care nurses in Turkey. Content analysis was used in the evaluation of the data. Three themes have been identified about perception of death. Furthermore, three themes have been identified about palliative care practices. It was concluded that the palliative nurses perceive death as a natural and inevitable process and that as long as their working period increases, they become desensitized. It was identified that the participants generally perform the following procedures in palliative care practices.

Palliative care in liver disease: what does good look like?

The mortality rate from chronic liver disease in the UK is rising rapidly, and patients with advanced disease have a symptom burden comparable to or higher than that experienced in other life-limiting illnesses. While evidence is limited, there is growing recognition that care of patients with advanced disease needs to improve. Many factors limit widespread provision of good palliative care to these patients, including the unpredictable trajectory of chronic liver disease, the misconception that palliative care and end-of-life care are synonymous, lack of confidence in prescribing and lack of time and resources. Healthcare professionals managing these patients need to develop the skills to ensure effective delivery of core palliative care, with referral to specialist palliative care services reserved for those with complex needs. Core palliative care is best delivered by the hepatology team in parallel with active disease management. This includes ensuring that discussions about disease trajectory and advance care planning occur alongside active management of disease complications. Liver disease is strongly associated with significant social, psychological and financial hardships for patients and their carers; strategies that involve the wider multidisciplinary team at an early stage in the disease trajectory help ensure proactive management of such issues. This review summarises the evidence supporting palliative care for patients with advanced chronic liver disease, presents examples of current best practice and provides pragmatic suggestions for how palliative and disease-modifying care can be run in parallel, such that patients do not miss opportunities for interventions that improve their quality of life.

Current Knowledge, Barriers to Implementation, and Future Directions in Palliative Care for End-Stage Liver Disease

End-stage liver disease (ESLD) is associated with a high degree of morbidity and mortality as well as symptom burden. Despite this, the rate of consultation with palliative care (PC) providers remains low, and invasive procedures near the end of life are commonplace. Studies show that involvement of PC providers improves patient satisfaction, and evidence from other chronic diseases demonstrates reduced costs of care and potentially increased survival. Better integration of PC is imperative but hindered by patient and provider misconceptions about its role in the care of patients with ESLD, specifically among candidates for liver transplantation. Additionally, reimbursement barriers and lack of provider knowledge may contribute to PC underutilization. In this review, we discuss the benefits of PC in ESLD, the variability of its delivery, and key stakeholders' perceptions about its use. Additionally, we identify barriers to more widespread PC adoption and highlight areas for future research.

Supportive and palliative care in people with cirrhosis: International systematic review of the perspective of patients, family members and health professionals

BACKGROUND & AIMS

People with cirrhosis have unmet needs, which could benefit from a palliative care approach. Developing effective services needs to be based on evidence from those with personal experience. This review aims to explore; patient and family perspectives of perceived needs including communication; health professionals' perspectives on delivery of care and improving palliative care between specialities.

METHODS

A literature search was conducted in Medline, Embase and CINAHL using key words reporting on the perspectives of patients with liver cirrhosis (18 years and over), family members or health professionals on the provision of care in liver cirrhosis. Study quality was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Qualitative and quantitative findings were grouped together according to the main relevant themes identified.

RESULTS

Nineteen research studies predominantly from high-income Western countries were identified, with a total sample consisting of 1,413 patients, 31 family carers and 733 health professionals. Patients and family members had limited understanding of cirrhosis or its impact. They wanted better information about their disease, its treatment and help with psychological and practical needs. Health professionals had difficulty communicating about these issues to patients and their families. General practitioners left care predominantly to the liver clinicians, who lacked confidence to have discussions about prognosis or future care preferences. The role of palliative care was recognised as important in caring for this group through earlier integration with liver and community services.

CONCLUSIONS

Health professionals need support to improve their communication with patients, to address patients' broader needs beyond medical treatment and to develop new models to improve palliative care coordination between different medical specialities. Future research should focus on developing communication aides, testing existing tools to identify suitable patients for supportive care and exploring robust ways of evaluating supportive care interventions, with more studies needed from middle- and low-income countries. Registration number: PROSPERO CRD42017064770.

LAY SUMMARY

Patients and their families had a poor understanding of advanced liver disease and its impact on them. They need more information about the treatments they receive and how to get practical and psychological support. Liver specialists and GPs found it difficult to talk to patients and their families about the seriousness of advanced liver disease and the lack of healthcare options available to them if their condition gets worse. All doctors and nurses involved in the care of patients with advanced liver disease recognise that palliative and supportive care have an important role in improving patient care.

The incompatibility of healthcare services and end-of-life needs in advanced liver disease: A qualitative interview study of patients and bereaved carers

BACKGROUND

Liver disease represents the third commonest cause of death in adults of working age and is associated with an extensive illness burden towards the end of life. Despite this, patients rarely receive palliative care and are unlikely to be involved in advance care planning discussions. Evidence addressing how existing services meet end-of-life needs, and exploring attitudes of patients and carers towards palliative care, is lacking.

AIM

To explore the needs of patients and carers with liver disease towards the end of life, evaluate how existing services meet need, and examine patient and carer attitudes towards palliative care.

DESIGN

Qualitative study - semi-structured interviews analysed using thematic analysis. Settings/participants: A total of 17 participants (12 patients, 5 bereaved carers) recruited from University Hospitals Bristol.

RESULTS

Participants described escalating physical, psychological and social needs as liver disease progressed, including disabling symptoms, emotional distress and uncertainty, addiction, financial hardship and social isolation. End-of-life needs were incompatible with the healthcare services available to address them; these were heavily centred in secondary care, focussed on disease modification at the expense of symptom control and provided limited support after curative options were exhausted. Attitudes towards palliative care were mixed, however, participants valued opportunities to express future care preferences (particularly relating to avoidance of hospital admission towards the end of life) and an increased focus on symptomatic and logistical aspects of care.

CONCLUSION

The needs of patients with liver disease and their carers are frequently incompatible with the healthcare services available to them towards the end of life. Novel strategies, which recognise the life-limiting nature of liver disease explicitly and improve coordination with community services, are required if end-of-life care is to improve.