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. 2022 Sep 6:43:1604856.
doi: 10.3389/phrs.2022.1604856. eCollection 2022.

Palliative Care Within the Primary Health Care Setting in Australia: A Scoping Review

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Palliative Care Within the Primary Health Care Setting in Australia: A Scoping Review

Deborah van Gaans et al. Public Health Rev. .

Abstract

Objectives: This scoping review identifies and details the scope of practice of health professionals who provide palliative care within the primary health setting in Australia. Methods: A scoping review approach was conducted on the Cinahl (Ebsco), Scopus, Medline (Ovid) and PubMed databases to extract articles from 1 December 2015 to 1 December 2020. Broad text words and MeSH headings were used with relevance to palliative care, general practice, primary health, and community setting. Extracted journal articles were limited to those based on the Australian population or Australian health system. Results: Eighty-four papers met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. The review identified the following health professional roles within the Primary Health Care setting undertaking palliative care: General Practitioner, Nurse, Pharmacist, Paramedics, Carers, and Allied Health professionals. Conclusion: This review offers a first understanding of the individual health professional roles and multidisciplinary team approach to actively providing palliative care within the Primary Health Care setting in Australia.

Keywords: general practitioners; palliative care; primary healthcare; public health; workforce.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Search results in a PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) Flow Diagram (Australia, 2022).

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