End of life care during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A qualitative study on the perspectives of nurses and nurse assistants

Abstract

Aim To explore nurses’ and nurse assistants’ experiences of providing end‐of‐life care during the COVID‐19 pandemic in Austria, Germany and Northern Italy. Design A qualitative explorative interview study. Method Data were collected between August and December 2020 and analysed using content analysis. Healthcare professionals (nurses ( n = 30), nurse coordinators ( n = 6) and nurse assistants ( n = 5)) from hospitals ( n = 32) and long‐term care facilities ( n = 9) in Austria, Germany and Northern Italy were interviewed for this study. Results Five main categories were identified as follows: (i) end‐of‐life care involves love and duty, (ii) last wishes and dignity of the patient, (iii) communication with the family, (iv) organizational and religious aspects and (v) personal emotions. Results indicate that more training and guidelines are needed to prepare nurses and nurse assistants for end‐of‐life care during pandemics. Public contribution This research can help prepare nurses and nurse assistants for end‐of‐life care in pandemics and will be of value for improving the institutional and government health policies. Furthermore, it can be of value in preparing training for healthcare professionals patient–relatives.

Description and Analysis of Research on Death and Dying during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Published in Nursing Journals Indexed in SCOPUS

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“…The following supporting information can be downloaded at: , File S1: Excel spreadsheet containing complete metadata of references retrieved for description and Analysis of Research on Death and Dying during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Published in Nursing Journals Indexed in SCOPUS. (References [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 , 79 , 80 , 81 , 82 …”