Knowledge and attitude toward geriatric palliative care: a systematic review

Abstract

Palliative care is described as a technique that improves the patients' and their families' quality of life, who are dealing with problems associated with life-threatening sickness. The specialist palliative care refers to the provision of palliative care by multidisciplinary teams with specialized skills, competencies, experience, and training in palliative care. As a result, palliative medicine is becoming more widely acknowledged as a medical subspecialty at a global level. Thus, this study aimed to explore the knowledge and attitude toward geriatric palliative care. The PubMed and Google Scholar databases were used to explore studies. Original research reporting medical therapies used in the knowledge and attitude toward geriatric palliative care and full-text publications served as the inclusion criterion. Though 130 articles were obtained, only 8 met the inclusion criteria. This study demonstrated poor knowledge and attitude of health professionals toward geriatric palliative care, pain management for patients, and training in end-of-life medicine. Prior training, previous contact with dying patients, and prior medical residency were essential to a better knowledge of end-of-life care. The studies elaborated on the urgency for educational training programs focused on improving geriatric palliative care, pain, dyspnea, and gastrointestinal issue management, especially those involving contact with dying patients.