Implementation of Knowledge-Based Palliative Care

The research on ageing during the last couple of decades has increasingly focused on questions regarding the quality of life and life satisfaction of the old people. Yet the research indicates that when it comes to the final stage of life, the end includes unnecessary suffering and the quality of life drops. Palliative care has traditionally been provided successfully to younger persons dying from incurable illnesses while older people dying of multiple morbidities or "old age" has received far less of this type of care. However, sixty percent of all people who died in Sweden in 2010 were at least 80 years old and it is well known that dying among older people often is a prolonged period of suffering. One reason might be that it is more difficult to identify when the final stages of life begins for older persons.

The purpose of this project is to implement and evaluate how a knowledge-based model for palliative care in nursing homes affects the quality of life and the participation in the care process for older persons in nursing homes and their next of kin. A second aim is to explore the staff's implementation process of palliative care and the role of the leadership. The final aim is to investigate which factors (barriers and facilitators) that affect the implementation process of this model.

The project was planned to be conducted using a cross-over design in two counties in south of Sweden based on a feasibility/pilot study that was conducted during fall 2014 co-created palliative care educational intervention through seminars for professionals in nursing homes. Due to a more significant amount of drop-outs compared with expected (and for not receiving the total amount of applied foundation), the plan needed to be revised. The knowledge-based palliative care intervention was conducted as a non-blinded control trial, implemented over a six-month period in 30 nursing homes in two different counties in the south of Sweden (County A and County B). The data collection was made in two sequential periods in each county. First, the intervention was implemented in ten nursing homes in County A (Kronoberg County from April 2015), while ten nursing homes in County B served as a control group. Then, County B implemented the intervention (Skåne county from April 2016), and ten new nursing homes in County A, which had not received the intervention, were chosen as a control group. After the two sequential time periods were data from one intervention and one control group analysed. The selection through voluntary participation resulted in a mixture of both larger and smaller nursing homes in the two counties, as well as both from urban and rural areas.

Every seminar group met once a month and included different professions (unit manager, district nurse, assistant nurse, and other staff i.e. occupational therapist and physiotherapist). There were 5 meetings in each nursing home during a period of 6 months.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Older persons living in the participating nursing homes
* Next of kin to older persons living in the participating nursing homes
* Staff working at the participating nursing homes
* Managers working at the participating nursing homes
* The participating nursing homes must be located in either Kronoberg County or Skåne County in Sweden

Exclusion Criteria:

* Not being cognitive able to participate in interviews or answering the questionnaires