Healthcare professionals’ perceptions of palliative care quality in a combined acute oncology-palliative care unit: A cross-sectional study

It is a challenge to ensure high-quality palliative care. The aim was to investigate the perceptions of health care professionals(HCPs) working in a combined acute oncology-palliative care unit regarding the quality of the palliative care received by thepatients and how important the care was to the patients. A Swedish total-survey cross-sectional study including 41 HCPs (54%response rate) was conducted with the 52 items Quality from the Patient’s Perspective – Palliative Care instrument, answeredin two different ways: as actual care received and subjective importance. The STROBE-checklist was used. The areas forimprovements were related to symptom relief, spiritual and existential needs, information, patient participation, continuity ofcare, care planning, cooperation and coordination of care, as subjective importance scores were higher than correspondingscores for care received (p .025). Providing high-quality palliative care alongside curative treatments for cancer patients isknown to be challenging and could explain the results in this study. Implementation of a person-centred palliative care modelbased on the hospice philosophy could be a solution