Palliative care - attitudes and opinions of the population of northwestern Croatia

Palijativna medicina je pristup koji poboljšava kvalitetu života pacijenta i njihovih obitelji koji su suočeni s problemima povezanima sa smrtonosnom bolešću, prevencijom i olakšavanjem patnje ranim prepoznavanjem te suzbijanjem boli i drugih problema. Cilj rada je ispitati stavove i mišljenja građana nezdravstvene struke sjeverozapadne Hrvatske o palijativnoj skrbi koje je dostupna u njihovim županijama, te željom za sudjelovanjem u palijativnom timu kao volonter. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 422 sudionika nezdravstvene struke s područja sjeverozapadne Hrvatske. Prikupljeni podaci statistički su obrađeni programom IBM SPSS Statistics 25. Rezultati istraživanja pokazali su da čak trećina (31%) sudionika ne zna što je palijativna skrb te nisu upoznati s uslugama vezanim uz palijativnu skrb koje im se nude u županijama. Također, uočeno je da su žene u većoj mjeri (35,4%) spremnije volontirati s palijativnim pacijentima, nego muškarci. Istraživanjem je potvrđeno da je bolja informiranost građana neophodna kako bi se više uključivali kao volonteri i da u slučaju potrebe za palijativnom skrbi su upoznati s resursima koji postoje u njihovoj sredini.Palliative medicine is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families who face problems related to deadly disease, preventing and alleviating suffering by early recognition, and combating pain and other problems. The aim of this paper is to examine the attitudes and opinions of citizens of the non-health profession in northwestern Croatia about palliative care available in their counties, and the desire to participate in the palliative team as a volunteer. 422 participants in the non-health profession from the area of northwestern Croatia participated in the research. The collected data were statistically processed by IBM SPSS Statistics 25. The results of the research showed that as many as a third (31%) of participants do not know what palliative care is and are not familiar with the palliative care services offered to them in the counties. Also, it was observed that women are more (35.4%) more willing to volunteer with palliative patients than men. The research confirmed that better information of citizens is necessary in order to be more involved as volunteers and that in case of need for palliative care they are familiar with the resources that exist in their environment