Abstract
Palliative therapies have an important role in increasing the quality of healthcare and in dealing with physical and psychosocial problems due to cancer. We here aimed to evaluate the managerial perspectives and opinions of the hospital managers and clinical directors about specialized palliative care centers. This study was conducted in two large-scale hospitals in which oncology care is given with medical directors (n:70). A questionnaire developed by the researchers asking about demographic characteristics and professional experience, opinions and suggestions of medical directors about providing and integrating palliative care into healthcare was used and responses were analyzed. Potential barriers in providing palliative care (PC) and integrating PC into health systems were perceived as institutional by most of the doctors (97%) and nurses (96%). Social barriers were reported by 54% of doctors and 82% of nurses. Barriers due to interest and knowledge of health professionals about PC were reported by 76% of doctors and 75% of nurses. Among encouragement ideas to provide PC were dealing with staff educational needs (72%), improved working conditions (77%) and establishing a special PC unit (49)%. An independent PC unit was suggested by 27.7% of participants and there was no difference between the hospitals. To overcome the barriers for integration of PC into health systems, providing education for health professionals and patient relatives, raising awareness in society, financial arrangements and providing infrastructure were suggested. The necessity for planning and programming were emphasized. In our study, the opinions and perspectives of hospital managers and clinical directors were similar to current approaches. Managerial needs for treating cancer in efficient cancer centers, increasing the capacity of health professionals to provide care in every stage of cancer, effective education planning and patient care management were emphasized.
Highlights
Various problems occur with the diagnosis of cancer, not just the patients and the health professionals are confronted with many problems
The majority of cancer patients are treated in university hospitals that have support units with pain specialists and medical oncologists (Elcigil 2011) In Turkish culture, palliative care (PC) for patients in need is usually provided in the family, patient is supported and cared by the family (Gultekin et al, 2010)
Through the survey period 70 medical directors (70% of all) returned the filled out questionnaires. 51.4% of the participants were women (n:36) and %48.6 were men (n:34)
Summary
Various problems occur with the diagnosis of cancer, not just the patients and the health professionals are confronted with many problems. A questionnaire developed by the researchers asking about demographic characteristics and professional experience, opinions and suggestions of medical directors about providing and integrating palliative care into healthcare was used and responses were analyzed. Results: Potential barriers in providing palliative care (PC) and integrating PC into health systems were perceived as institutional by most of the doctors (97%) and nurses (96%). To overcome the barriers for integration of PC into health systems, providing education for health professionals and patient relatives, raising awareness in society, financial arrangements and providing infrastructure were suggested. Managerial needs for treating cancer in efficient cancer centers, increasing the capacity of health professionals to provide care in every stage of cancer, effective education planning and patient care management were emphasized
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