Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov;29(6):10.1111/ecc.13316.
doi: 10.1111/ecc.13316. Epub 2020 Sep 9.

A qualitative evidence synthesis of healthcare professionals' experiences and views of palliative care for patients with a haematological malignancy

Maura Dowling  1 , Paul Fahy  1 , Catherine Houghton  1 , Mike Smalle  2
Affiliations

A qualitative evidence synthesis of healthcare professionals' experiences and views of palliative care for patients with a haematological malignancy

Maura Dowling et al. Eur J Cancer Care (Engl). 2020 Nov.

Abstract

Introduction: Patients with haematological malignancies may not be receiving appropriate referrals to palliative care and continuing to have treatments in the end stages of their disease. This systematic review of qualitative research aimed to synthesise healthcare professionals' (HCPs) views and experiences of palliative care for adult patients with a haematologic malignancy.

Methods: A systematic search strategy was undertaken across eight databases. Thomas and Harden's approach to thematic analysis guided synthesis on the seventeen included studies. GRADE-GRADEQual guided assessment of confidence in the synthesised findings.

Results: Three analytic themes were identified: (a) "Maybe we can pull another 'rabbit out of the hat'," represents doctors' therapeutic optimism, (b) "To tell or not to tell?" explores doctors' decision-making around introducing palliative care, and (c) "Hospice, home or hospital?" describes HCPs concerns about challenges faced by haematology patients at end of life in terms of transfusion support and risk of catastrophic bleeds.

Conclusion: Haematologists value the importance of integrated palliative care but prefer the term "supportive care." Early integration of supportive care alongside active curative treatment should be the model of choice in haematology settings in order to achieve the best outcomes and improved quality of life.

Keywords: cancer; haematology; healthcare professional; palliative care; qualitative; qualitative evidence synthesis; review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flow diagram of article selection through PRISMA (Moher, Liberati, Tetzlaff, & Altman, 2009)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Boland, A. , Cherry, M. G. , & Dickson, R. (2014). Doing a systematic review. A student’s guide. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
    1. Booth, A. (2016). Systematic approaches to a successful literature review (2nd ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
    1. Booth, A. , Noyes, J. , Flemming, K. , Gerhardus, A. , Wahlster, P. , van der Wilt, G. J. , … Rehfuess, E. (2018). Structured methodology review identified seven (RETREAT) criteria for selecting qualitative evidence synthesis approaches. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 99, 41–52. 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2018.03.003 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bressan, R. A. , Iacoponi, E. , Candido De Assis, J. , & Shergill, S. S. (2017). Hope is a therapeutic tool. BMJ, 359, 1 10.1136/bmj.j546 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Brück, P. , Pierzchlewska, M. , Kaluzna‐Oleksy, M. , Lopez, M. E. R. , Rummel, M. , Hoelzer, D. , & Böhme, A. (2012). Dying of hematologic patients—Treatment characteristics in a German University Hospital. Supportive Care in Cancer, 20(11), 2895–2902. 10.1007/s00520-012-1417-8 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types