Kontakt 2011, 13(3):265-274 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2011.032

Evaluation of psychosocial needs in patients at terminal stage of their diseaseNursing

Radka Bužgová

Ostravská univerzita v Ostravě, Lékařská fakulta, Ústav ošetřovatelství a porodní asistence

The requirements for the dignity of dying and good conditions of the death always inseparably include the quality of taking the care and evaluating and experiencing the end of the life by the patient. In spite of this, many patients are provided neither with specialized care nor with general palliative care at the end of their life. There are evidences suggesting that these patients encounter many unmet needs considerably reducing the quality of their life. The authors particularly point out the problem of lacking solutions to needs of patients at the terminal stage of their disease, very old fragile patients, or patients with dementia, due to the fact that the palliative treatment of non-cancer diseases is not very popular in the international context. Patients with the final stage of their chronic disease typically die in hospitals, their needs being frequently ignored. The target of the reviewing study presented here was to determine what psychosocial needs were found in oncological and nononcological patients and what tools are being most frequently employed for the measurement of psychosocial needs in patients at the terminal stage of their diseases. McIllmurray et al. (2003) consider six categories of psychosocial needs as follows: needs associated with the work of healthcare professionals, the need for information, the need for support, the need for finding their own intensity and emotional needs, spiritual needs, and practical needs, which are furthermore discussed in the work. Based on an analysis of research works carried out, it was found that in the field of psychosocial needs, the patients experiencing the palliative treatment feel a particular importance of relationships between them, the team of care providers and the family. In abroad, standardized questionnaires, as for example the NEQ (Needs Evaluation Questionnaire) or PNI (Psychosocial Need Inventory), are used in the measurement of psychosocial needs of patients submitted to the palliative treatment. Establishing the psychotherapeutic relationship with the patient based on the trust, having respect one for another, open communication and supporting the independence, should become an important element of taking care of patients at the terminal stage of their disease. Support of relationships between the patients and their families is also an integral component of this issue.

Keywords: palliative care; needs; unmet needs; death; dying

Received: June 9, 2011; Accepted: September 9, 2011; Published: September 29, 2011  Show citation