Background

Palliation means relief and is applied to the professional efforts to prevent and alleviate suffering for people with life-threatening illnesses. Many palliative patients prefer to stay at home in their own safe environment during their course of illness. At the same time they need intimacy and comfort, which requires time and resources on part of the palliative nurses. 

Purpose/Vision

The project will examine whether adding video consultations to the daily care practice can improve the patients' experiences of the palliative care in terms of e.g. comfort and social closeness.

The project aims to achieve knowledge about the use of video consultations from a specialised Danish palliative care initiative by elucidating

1. which patients and relatives are suitable for video consultations
2. how patients, relatives and health professionals experience the use of video consultations
3. cons and pros of video consultations.

As part of the project, palliative patients will be referred for (and take part in) video consultations. Data about the patients and their courses of action will be collected through an app and include information on diagnosis; age; gender; relatives; the reason for using the video consultation; the outcome and duration of the video consultation.

The project will achieve new knowledge by focusing on practices and the users of the technology, i.e. patients, relatives, health professionals and their experiences with the use of video consultations in palliative care as well as the opportunities and challenges involved.

Activities in the Project:

• Data collection: participant observation, interviews with patients and the involved health professionals
• Tests of consultations involving 10 patients
• Analysis of the collected data
• Submission of a scientific paper.

Expected Results

The use of a safe, dedicated video communication solution in palliative care is a completely new approach and has not previously been thoroughly analysed in a Danish context. This project is the first Danish intervention study in specialised palliative care.

It is expected that the project will contribute to greater safety and efficacy in palliative care within the healthcare sector. There is also an economic incentive to defer or prevent admissions of palliative patients, but such an investigation is not within the scope of this pilot project.

Read more about Knowledge Centre for Rehabilitation and Palliative Care HERE.