Palliative care in nursing homes in Slovenia

Izhodišče: Širša javnost in tudi zdravstveni delavci nimajo dovolj znanja o paliativni oskrbi. Zato bi bilo nujno potrebno paliativno oskrbo postaviti na prvo mesto in spodbujati njeno načrtno vpeljavo v vseh zdravstvenih ustanovah. Namen: Namen raziskave je bil proučiti paliativno oskrbo in raziskati, kako je dejansko organizirana v socialnovarstvenem zavodu in v kolikšni meri so zavodi pripravljeni imeti paliativni tim, v njem sodelovati ter delati po načelih paliativne oskrbe. Metodologija: Naloga temelji na kvantitativni metodologiji in deskriptivni metodi pregleda literature. Najpomembnejši instrument zbiranja podatkov je bil anketni vprašalnik. Pridobljene podatke smo prikazali v obliki grafov in preglednic in jih obdelali s pomočjo računalniškega programa Microsoft Excel 2010 in s statističnim programom SPSS 20.0. Rezultati: Raziskava je pokazala, da več kot 80 % vprašanih pravi, da vedno oziroma občasno izvajajo paliativno oskrbo pri stanovalcih, ki trpijo zaradi hude bolečine in pri umirajočih, kljub temu, da nimajo tima strokovnjakov. Znanje zdravstvenih delavcev o paliativi je najbolj pomanjkljivo na področju komunikacije s svojci in pri prepoznavanju simptomov. V večini vključujejo svojce v paliativno obravnavo, toda zdravniki večinoma niso prisotni oziroma so prisotni v izjemnih primerih. Sklep: Celostna paliativna oskrba pomeni zaobjeti in slišati človeka v njegovih telesnih, duhovnih, socialnih in psihičnih stiskah. Cilj paliativne oskrbe bolnika je, da se mu omogoči najboljša možna kakovost življenja in da se mu olajšajo težave procesa umiranja. Za doseganje ciljev je pomembna vključitev bolnika v zgodno paliativno obravnavo in seznanjenje bolnika s potekom bolezni in načinom zdravljenja.Thesis: Healthcare workers and lay public do not have enough knowledge about palliative care. For this reason, it would be necessary that palliative care is given more importance in all healthcare institutions and that the institutions are encouraged to introduce the palliative care into their regular practice. Goals: The purpose of the research was to study palliative care, its organization in the social security institutions and to analyze the motivation of the institutions to make a palliative team, to have active members of the team and to follow the principles of palliative care. Methodology: The thesis focuses on an overview of the literature considering palliative care, using a quantitative and descriptive methodology. The most important instrument for collecting data was a survey questionnaire. The data is presented in graphs and tables and was processed with Microsoft Excel 2010 and statistical software program SPSS 20.0. Findings: The survey showed that more than 80 % of interviewees say that the patients who suffer from severe pains and the dying regularly or occasionally enjoy palliative care in their institution, even though they do not have a palliative work team. Communication with relatives and identifying the symptoms are the skills and knowledge healthcare workers particularly lack. In most cases, the relatives are included into a palliative care but the doctors participate only exceptionally. Conclusion: Integral palliative care deals with the patient’s physical, spiritual, social and psychical distress. Its purpose is to offer a patient the best possible quality of life and to relieve the process of dying. For this purpose, it is essential to include the patients into a palliative care as early as possible and to inform them with the progress of a disease and a medical treatment