Open AccessWhy oral palliative care takes a backseat? A national focus group study on experiences of palliative doctors, nurses and dentists
Author(s) -
Venkatasalu Munikumar Ramasamy,
Murang Zaidah Rizidah,
Husaini Hajah Asmah binti Haji,
Idris Deeni Rudita,
Dhaliwal Jagjit Singh
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
nursing open
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.55
H-Index - 12
ISSN - 2054-1058
DOI - 10.1002/nop2.480
Subject(s) - palliative care , referral , thematic analysis , nursing , focus group , medicine , qualitative research , family medicine , exploratory research , quality of life (healthcare) , health care , sociology , anthropology , economics , economic growth , social science
Aim Poor oral care among frail older people at the end of life endangers quality of life. However, only few dying people have access to oral palliative care services. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate oral palliative care practices and referral patterns for palliative patients in the Brunei healthcare settings. Design An exploratory qualitative study. Methods Five focus groups were conducted among palliative care nurses ( N = 7), palliative medicine doctors ( N = 4), dentists ( N = 6), oncologists ( N = 4) and oncology nurses ( N = 4). Verbatim was analysed using qualitative thematic analysis. Results Analyses revealed four distinct themes emerging as current oral palliative care assessment and referral practice in the Brunei healthcare settings: “taking a back seat,” “opportunistic oral care,” “they refused and refused” and “challenging healthcare resources and oral palliative care.”