South African paramedic perspectives on prehospital palliative care
Date
2020-10-08
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC (part of Springer Nature)
Abstract
Background: Palliative care is typically performed in-hospital. However, Emergency Medical Service (EMS) providers
are uniquely positioned to deliver early palliative care as they are often the first point of medical contact. The aim
of this study was to gather the perspectives of advanced life support (ALS) providers within the South African
private EMS sector regarding pre-hospital palliative care in terms of its importance, feasibility and barriers to its
practice.
Methods: A qualitative study design employing semi-structured one-on-one interviews was used. Six interviews
with experienced, higher education qualified, South African ALS providers were conducted. Content analysis, with
an inductive-dominant approach, was performed to identify categories within verbatim transcripts of the interview
audio-recordings.
Results: Four categories arose from analysis of six interviews: 1) need for pre-hospital palliative care, 2) function of
pre-hospital healthcare providers concerning palliative care, 3) challenges to pre-hospital palliative care and 4) ideas
for implementing pre-hospital palliative care. According to the interviewees of this study, pre-hospital palliative care
in South Africa is needed and EMS providers can play a valuable role, however, many challenges such as a lack of
education and EMS system and mindset barriers exist.
Conclusion: Challenges to pre-hospital palliative care may be overcome by development of guidelines, training,
and a multi-disciplinary approach to pre-hospital palliative care.
Description
CITATION: Gage, C. H., Geduld, H. & Stassen, W. 2020. South African paramedic perspectives on prehospital palliative care. BMC Palliative Care, 19:153, doi:10.1186/s12904-020-00663-5.
The original publication is available at https://bmcpalliatcare.biomedcentral.com
The original publication is available at https://bmcpalliatcare.biomedcentral.com
Keywords
Palliative
Citation
Gage, C. H., Geduld, H. & Stassen, W. 2020. South African paramedic perspectives on prehospital palliative care. BMC Palliative Care, 19:153, doi:10.1186/s12904-020-00663-5