Hospice care service with social work perspective: The opinions evaluation of the healthcare professionals and patient's relatives who care for cancer patients in their terminal period

Purpose: The main purpose of this research is to determine the problems and needs of caregivers who suffer from terminal cancer patient loss and to evaluate the views of patient relatives and health professionals about hospice care services in a biopsychosocial context. Materials and Methods: The research was conducted with the phenomenological approach of qualitative research design. Twenty-three people have participated in this study, including 18 healthcare professionals working with terminal oncology patients (doctors, nurses, and caregivers) and five caregivers with experiences of losing terminal cancer patients. A semi-structured interview form was prepared in the light of national and international literature and this form was filled out with an in-depth interview technique. The collected data were encoded with MAXQDA and analyzed with thematic analysis. Findings: The opinions of the healthcare professionals and the patients' relatives have been evaluated under 5 basic categories and the themes that make up these categories as follows: "Terminal period, terminal period care problems, death place preferences, problems caused by death in hospital, the necessity of hospice care, structuring and functioning of hospices, problems experienced by patients relatives, effects of caregiving, death process and hospice care according to caregivers".In the study, it was found that problems such as bed occupation, economic burden, social justice and ethical dilemmas, and deaths occurring in hospitals were experienced in this period due to the fact that care systems specific to terminal patients were not integrated into our health system. As a result of this study, it has been concluded that patients die uncomfortably and far from their loved ones due to the hospice care service not being implemented in our country. In addition, it has been also observed the relatives who provide care for the patient during their terminal periods experience physical, economic, psychological, and social problems and that those patients' relatives should be supported psychosocially. Results: In line with the views of health professionals and the patients' relatives who provide care participating in this study, hospice care service is considered a necessity in our country and also it has been concluded that in case of the existence of hospices, these institutions will establish a bridge between the hospital and the patient's home, thus reducing the workload of the hospitals and using their resources efficiently. At the same time, it has been revealed that the hospice services will enable patients and their relatives to spend time together within peace before the patient's death, and will reduce the biopsychosocial problems experienced in this period. At the end of the research, a model titled "Biopsychosocial Service Hospice Care and Application Guide" was proposed for hospice care.