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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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The role of healthcare support workers in providing palliative and end-of-life care in the community
— a systematic literature review | | Author(s) | Oliver R Herber, Bridget M Johnston |
| Journal title | Health and Social Care in the Community, vol 21, no 3, May 2013 |
| Publisher | Wiley Blackwell, May 2013 |
| Pages | pp 225-235 |
| Source | www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journals/hsc |
| Keywords | Terminal illness ; Dying ; Community care ; Terminal care ; Nursing ; Home care services ; Literature reviews. |
| Annotation | Despite the widespread use of Health Care Support Workers (HCSWs) in providing palliative and end-of-life care, there is little information available about their contributions towards supporting patients who want to be cared for and/or die at home. Between January and April 2011, a systematic review was conducted to address two questions: (i) What particular tasks/roles do HCSWs perform when caring for people at the end of life and their families to comply with their desire to remain at home?; (ii) What are the challenges and supporting factors that influence HCSWs' ability to provide palliative and end-of-life care in the community? A search was carried out for papers published from 1990 to April 2011. In total, 1,695 papers were identified, ten of which met the eligibility criteria of the study. After the methodological quality of the studies was appraised, nine papers were included in the review. The findings indicated that HCSWs invest a great deal of their time on emotional and social support as well as on assisting in the provision of personal care. They are also involved in providing care for the dying, respite care for family members and offer domestic support. Although it is important to acknowledge the many positive aspects that HCSWs provide, the findings suggest three challenges in the HCSWs role: emotional attachment, role ambiguity and inadequate training. Support factors such as informal peer grief-support groups, sense of cohesiveness among HCSWs and task orientation enabled HCSWs to overcome these challenges. To conclude, induction and training programmes, a defined period of preceptorship, appropriate support, supervision and clearly defined role boundaries may be helpful in reducing the challenges identified in HCSWs' roles. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-130419211 A |
| Classmark | CV: CX: PA: LV: LQ: NH: 64A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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