• Vera Peuckmann-Post, Carolin Hagedorn, Norbert Krumm, Roman Rolke, and Frank Elsner.
• Klinik für Palliativmedizin, Medizinische Fakultät, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Deutschland. vpeuckmann@ukaachen.de.
• Schmerz. 2022 Apr 1; 36 (2): 9910899-108.

BackgroundOpioids efficiently manage pain and dyspnea. However, guidelines on symptom management with opioids differ, which may lead to uncertainty among medical staff concerning opioid indication and ethical implication, especially when caring for COVID-19 patients.AimsWe aimed to examine the perception of morphine/opioid (M/O) administration for symptom control within and outside palliative care, including care for COVID-19 patients, among members of the German associations for palliative medicine, internal medicine, anesthesiology and intensive care.MethodsParticipants received an anonymized online questionnaire via Survey Monkey® (Momentive Inc., San Mateo, CA, USA) regarding their general perception of symptom management with M/O. These results have been published elsewhere. For systematic and structural analysis of comments in the free-text field, we chose Phillip Mayring's method of summarizing qualitative content analysis.ResultsOf the n = 2202 persons who participated, 339 wrote comments in the free-text field which were categorized as follows: main categories 1) personal perceptions of COVID-19 patients, 2) administration and effect of M/O, 3) observations within the palliative care field, 4) imparting knowledge concerning M/O usage and palliative care, and 5) others.ConclusionsSome participants reported very personal perceptions and deficits of the healthcare system, especially when caring for COVID-19 patients. Uniform interdisciplinary guidelines for symptom control, more education, and support by trained staff confident in symptom control should be increasingly considered in the future.© 2022. The Author(s).

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