What is it about?
A new role was created, with the specific remit of expediting discharge from hospital in the last days of life, to an alternative place of choice. This paper reports the findings from interviews with palliative care staff and carers of relatives who have died, from their perspective.
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Why is it important?
Creation of the discharge sister role was in response to figures which suggest that many people who would like to die at home, or in a similar place of comfort, are denied the choice to do so. There was evidence to suggest that the reason for this was often the sluggishness of services; that they were unable to move quickly enough before the patient became too close to death to move them. It is important to understand, through interpretive methodologies, what the issues are on the frontline, for those closest to the dying person. Thereby including these perspectives in decision-making regarding service provision.
Perspectives
It was a privilege to talk with carers who had looked after their relatives at home until they died. I heard about some of the benefits and difficulties that they had experienced. In interviews with hospital staff it was interesting to hear about how some were so focused on preventing death, or struggled to deal with the idea of death, that they found it very difficult to release patients into palliative care and home. They were contrasted with those who accepted that death was close and that their caring priorities had changed and needed to reflect this; that it was not a failure on their part or something that was a threat from which they wanted to withdraw. Interestingly, the discharge sister role was found not to be workable, in its present form, by the evaluation.
Susan Jones
Teesside University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Rapid discharge from hospital in the last days of life: an evaluation of key issues and the discharge sister role, International Journal of Palliative Nursing, December 2015, Mark Allen Group,
DOI: 10.12968/ijpn.2015.21.12.588.
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