• Katharina Seibel, Bettina Couné, Michael Mueller, Christopher Boehlke, Steffen T Simon, Claudia Bausewein, and Gerhild Becker.
• Department of Palliative Medicine, University Medical Center Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
• Palliat Med. 2022 Feb 1; 36 (2): 332-341.

BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become apparent that palliative care has dynamically adapted to the care of dying patients with and without COVID-19 and has developed new forms of collaboration. Evaluation is needed to assess which innovations should be integrated into future pandemic management.AimTo explore the experiences of stakeholders and staff in implementing and operating an ad hoc unit delivering acute palliative care. What lessons were learned?DesignQualitative interview study (German Clinical Trials Register; identifier 22,473) with qualitative content analysis.Setting/ParticipantsDuring the first wave of the pandemic, the University Medical Center Freiburg (Germany) established an ad hoc unit delivering acute palliative care for COVID-19 patients likely to die. Nurses from non-palliative areas and the specialist palliative care team formed a new team working together there. Twenty-nine individuals from management and staff of this unit were interviewed.ResultsPatient care and teamwork were rated positively. Joint familiarization, bedside teaching, and team/management support were evaluated as core elements for success. Challenges for the nurses from non-palliative settings included adapting to palliative care routines and culture of care. The palliative care team had to adjust the high standards of palliative care to pandemic conditions. Due to sufficient hospital-wide capacity, only three COVID-19 patients were treated, significantly fewer than anticipated at planning.ConclusionsResults show the feasibility of an ad hoc COVID-19 acute palliative care unit. In the event of capacity constraints, such a unit can be a viable part of future pandemic management.

11 keywords...

hide…