Caring Advanced Cancer Patients at Home During COVID-19 Outbreak: Burnout and Psychological Morbidity Among Palliative Care Professionals in Italy

Abstract

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Health and social care professionals’ experiences of providing end of life care during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study

“…Literature highlights that clinicians report better scores on job satisfaction, stress levels, general health and productivity when they have opportunities for ‘downtime’ including annual leave. 28,29 Strategic leadership is vital in enabling and promoting self-care for all members of staff, 30 for example through protected time to attend clinical reflection or Schwartz rounds. 31 The active participation of senior professionals is essential for these activities to become embedded in wider team practice.…”

Advanced cancer and COVID-19 comorbidity: medical oncology-palliative medicine ethics meetings in a comprehensive cancer centre

“…The psychological state of oncologists and palliative care team members could be stretched by oversolicitation, the high risk of COVID-19 among healthcare professionals, the infection risk for their relatives and their responsibility towards their patients. 27 However, the team-building setting provided by the collegiate decision-making experience during the onco-palliative ethics meeting may well have improved their sense of professional satisfaction and personal accomplishment. A sense of teamwork could be the main protection against burnout for healthcare professionals facing an epidemic onslaught.…”

Frequency and characteristics of advanced cancer patients with COVID + ve status among inpatient supportive care consults during the pandemic: experience from a tertiary cancer center

“…Qian et al found similar findings suggesting that COVID-19-ve cancer patients have high levels of anxiety and depressed mood related to patients expressed fear of becoming infected themselves (85%) or their family (91%), and of cancer progression due to treatment delay (91%) [ 21 ]. Prior studies also found higher level of distress and burnout among health care providers taking care hospitalized non-COVID-19 cancer patients than COVID-19 patients [ 7 , 22 ]. Therefore, there is great need to provide psychosocial support addressing the COVID-19-related fears among PC patients and teams.…”

“…The pandemic had devastating effects among palliative care health care providers both in the hospital (outpatient and inpatient) and home settings. The negative effects included fear of infection to their family and themselves, significant limitations and logistics barriers in terms of access to patients and caregivers, and personal hardships due to lack of social networking with family friends, workplace resulting in psychological distress, sleep disturbance, and worsening of chronic illness [ 7 , 8 ]. There is limited published literature on the frequency COVID-19 + ve status among hospitalized inpatient supportive care referrals seen at a tertiary cancer center during the pandemic, the characteristics of patients with and without COVID-19 + ve status during the pandemic, and how they differed in terms of symptom distress when seen in person vs. virtually.…”