Repository logo
 
Publication

Informal Palliative Care at Home: A Focus Group Study Among Professionals Working in Palliative Care in Portugal

2025-04-23Journal article Open access
Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorVanessa Marrazes
dc.contributor.authorLaura Gonçalves
dc.contributor.authorAna Querido
dc.contributor.authorCarlos Laranjeira
dc.contributor.authorLaranjeira, Carlos
dc.contributor.authorQuerido, Ana
dc.date.accessioned2025-06-06T14:08:38Z
dc.date.available2025-06-06T14:08:38Z
dc.date.issued2025-04-23
dc.descriptionThe authors express their profound gratitude to the ICs who generously contributed and the staff that participated in the recruitment process
dc.description.abstractInformal caregivers (ICs) are the backbone of homebased palliative care (PC) because they play a vital role in offering more seamless and timely support, preventing suffering and fostering comfort and dignity. Specialized home-based PCteams must recognize ICs’ unmet needs in fulfilling daily responsibilities and enhance their preparedness for caring. In this vein, this study aimed to carry out the following: (a) explore how PC professionals perceive the preparedness of ICs to provide PC at home and (b) determine what barriers and enablers they consider essential for the delivery of high-quality PC at home. Methods: Using purposeful sampling, thirty-four professionals from four disciplines who worked in specialized PC teams were recruited for a descriptive qualitative research study. Four focus group discussions were conducted from September 2024 to January 2025. This was followed by a thematic analysis according to Braun and Clarke’s framework. The findings are reported following the COREQ checklist. Results: Most of the participants were female nurses (n = 22) with a mean age of 41.8 ± 8.62 years. AcademicEditor: JosepVidal-Alaball Received: 30March2025 Revised: 19April2025 Accepted: 22April2025 Published: 23 April2025 Citation: Marrazes,V.; Gonçalves, L.; Querido, A.; Laranjeira, C. Informal Palliative Care at Home: AFocus GroupStudyAmongProfessionals WorkinginPalliative CareinPortugal. Healthcare 2025, 13, 978. https:// doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13090978 Copyright: ©2025bytheauthors. Licensee MDPI,Basel,Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the termsand conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)license (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/). Three overarching themes were identified: (1) IC needs and motivations for providing care; (2) perceived barriers to good-quality palliative home care; and (3) perceived enablers of good-quality palliative home care. The IC’s preparedness depends on personal characteristics, health status, the scope of tasks, and the ramifications stemming from the complexity of the illness trajectory. Conclusions: Professionals deemed it essential for PC staff to be experienced, accessible, person-centered, and proactive. Furthermore, effective communication and a well-defined network for requesting certain community resources or services were deemed crucial for delivering high-quality PC at home.por
dc.description.sponsorshipFunding This study has developed under the project Help2Care-PAL: Support the caregiver in palliative care, funded by Fundação “LaCaixa” (IC21-00035). This work is also supported by national funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. (UIDB/05704/2020 and UIDP/05704/2020)—and under the Scientific Employment Stimulus-Institutional Call (https://doi.org/10.54499/CEECINST/00051/2018/CP1566/CT0012, accessed on 20 April 2025).
dc.identifier.citationMarrazes,V.; Gonçalves, L.; Querido, A.; Laranjeira, C. Informal Palliative Care at Home: AFocus GroupStudyAmongProfessionals WorkinginPalliative CareinPortugal. Healthcare 2025, 13, 978. https:// doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13090978
dc.identifier.doi10.3390/healthcare13090978
dc.identifier.issn2227-9032
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/13163
dc.language.isoeng
dc.peerreviewedyes
dc.publisherMDPI
dc.relationCenter for Innovative Care and Health Technology
dc.relation.hasversionhttps://www.mdpi.com/2227-9032/13/9/978
dc.relation.ispartofHealthcare
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectinformal caregivers
dc.subjecthome-based care
dc.subjectpreparedness
dc.subjectpalliative care
dc.subjectqualitative study
dc.titleInformal Palliative Care at Home: A Focus Group Study Among Professionals Working in Palliative Care in Portugaleng
dc.typejournal article
dspace.entity.typePublication
oaire.awardTitleCenter for Innovative Care and Health Technology
oaire.awardURIinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDP%2F05704%2F2020/PT
oaire.citation.issue9
oaire.citation.startPage978
oaire.citation.titleHealthcare
oaire.citation.volume13
oaire.fundingStream6817 - DCRRNI ID
oaire.versionhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
person.familyNameLaranjeira
person.familyNameQuerido
person.givenNameCarlos
person.givenNameAna
person.identifier.ciencia-idE311-0BBA-444F
person.identifier.orcid0000-0003-1080-9535
person.identifier.orcid0000-0002-5021-773X
person.identifier.scopus-author-id22957802900
project.funder.identifierhttp://doi.org/10.13039/501100001871
project.funder.nameFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
relation.isAuthorOfPublication7c2157d8-cac9-4004-9438-e92fec260842
relation.isAuthorOfPublication51328dd6-b900-4ffa-adf1-f7ee0262648c
relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery7c2157d8-cac9-4004-9438-e92fec260842
relation.isProjectOfPublicatione5ceb42e-60fb-425d-8576-b213fc64081f
relation.isProjectOfPublication.latestForDiscoverye5ceb42e-60fb-425d-8576-b213fc64081f

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Informal Palliative Care at Home A Focus Group Study Among Professionals Working in Palliative Care in Portugal.pdf
Size:
307.48 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.32 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

ciTechCare - Artigos
ESSLei - Artigos em revistas internacionais