Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
TelePalliation facilitates a sense of security for patients with terminal illnesses
ABSTRACT
Background:
Each year, an estimated 20 million people worldwide are in need of palliative care. The main diagnosis of people needing palliative care is cancer, followed by cardiovascular disease and chronical obstructive lung disease. Theonline telepalliation program and digital platform (offering video consultation, treatment planning, patient-reported outcomes, chat forum and information on palliation) was developed through a participatory design process involving patients, their relatives, healthcare professionals and researchers.
Objective:
To pilot test the TelePalliation program during Covid-19
Methods:
The case study is used as the overall method for the study. The theoretical framework is Antonovsky's ‘sense of coherence’ theory. A triangulation of data collection techniques was used: Documents (homepages and documents on palliative care) have been studied. Participant-observation was carried out in patients´ homes (n=16 hours). Semi-structured qualitative interviews were carried out with 3 women (ages 46-73) and 3 men (64-80). Of the six patients, 4 were diagnosed with cancer and 2 with cardiovascular diseases. The interviews were recorded and analyzed. We followed 7 subjects and conducted 6 interviews. One patient dropped out due fatigue
Results:
Patients participating in the Telepalliation program articulated their experiences in terms of the following themes: a sense of security, a sense of coherence, a feeling that the TelePal platform facilitates continuity and better communication with healthcare professionals across sectors; a sense of easier access to the palliative team; a feeling that their spouse and family were more integrated into the care process because they could participate in difficult dialogues with the palliative team via video link
Conclusions:
Preliminary findings indicate that patients participating in a telepalliation program experience a sense of security, coherence in their care process and integrated care across sectors for the individual patients. Further research is needed on the potential benefits and drawbacks of telepalliation Clinical Trial: Den Videnskabsetiske Komité for Region Nordjylland N-20200094 www.drvk.dk
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.