Abstract
BackgroundIntroducing welfare technology in home-based palliative care has been suggested to be beneficial for improving access to health care at home and enhancing patients’ feelings of security and safety. However, little is known about the experiences of municipal health-care professionals using welfare technology in palliative home care. The aim of this study was to explore municipal health-care professionals’ experiences regarding the significant challenges, facilitators, and assessments associated with implementing a technological solution named “remote home care” in palliative home care for patients with cancer.MethodsA qualitative, descriptive, exploratory design was used. Data were collected through focus-group interviews and individual semi-structured interviews with interdisciplinary health-care professionals who had experience using remote home care in clinical encounters with cancer patients who were in the palliative phase and living at home. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.ResultsThree themes were identified: 1) shifting from objective measures to assessing priorities for patients, 2) lack of experience and personal distress regarding cancer inhibits professional care, and 3) prominent organizational challenges undermine the premise of remote home care.ConclusionThe results showed that shifting from a disease-focused to a person-centered approach enables health-care professionals to assess patients’ personal priorities.However, health-care professionals’ uncertainty and lack of knowledge and experience, along with organizational issues concerning information-sharing, represent great challenges that have the potential to inhibit professional care. The availability of networks through which difficult issues can be discussed was highlighted as being a fundamental resource for facilitating the provision of care.
Highlights
Introducing welfare technology in home-based palliative care has been suggested to be beneficial for improving access to health care at home and enhancing patients’ feelings of security and safety
Shifting from objective measures to assessing priorities for patients The Health-care professional (HCP) expressed concerns regarding Remote home care (RHC) becoming “another thing” that patients would need to relate to and familiarize themselves with. They reported that the initial assessment meeting between the patients and HCPs from the RHC team was important for gaining knowledge of the patients’ situations, as the benefits and burdens of installing medical measuring devices needed to be carefully assessed
Our results showed that a challenge to implementing RHC in palliative homecare is a lack of experience and adequate knowledge about cancer among HCPs
Summary
Introducing welfare technology in home-based palliative care has been suggested to be beneficial for improving access to health care at home and enhancing patients’ feelings of security and safety. Little is known about the experiences of municipal health-care professionals using welfare technology in palliative home care. The aim of this study was to explore municipal health-care professionals’ experiences regarding the significant challenges, facilitators, and assessments associated with implementing a technological solution named “remote home care” in palliative home care for patients with cancer. The introduction of welfare technology (WT) in home-based PC can improve patients’ access to health-care professionals (HCPs). Patients in need of PC, value coordinated and continuous care with a good relationship and access to HCPs when needed [2,3,4]. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a massive disruption of health care services and has generated a rapid need for the development of technology solutions that support remote PC and minimize both patients’ and providers’ risk of exposure to the virus [9]
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