"It's not about treatment, it's how to improve your life": The lived experience of occupational therapy in palliative care

Title

"It's not about treatment, it's how to improve your life": The lived experience of occupational therapy in palliative care

Creator

Badger S; Macleod R; Honey A

Publisher

Palliative & Supportive Care

Date

2016

Subject

Professional-patient Relationship; Psychology; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Australia; Female; Human; Male; Middle Aged; Occupational Therapy; Palliative Therapy; Procedures; Qualitative Research; Quality Of Life; Standards; Very Elderly

Description

OBJECTIVES: A key aim of palliative care is to improve the quality-of-life of people with a life-threatening illness. Occupational therapists are well positioned to contribute to this aim due to their broad range of interventions, client-centeredness and focus on occupation. However, there is a limited understanding of how occupational therapy contributes to the end-of-life experience, which is crucial to providing optimal care. The aim of this study is to investigate the lived experience of occupational therapy in palliative care for people with a life-threatening illness. METHOD: A hermeneutic interpretive phenomenological approach was adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants recruited from inpatient and outpatient sectors of a specialist palliative care hospital in Sydney, Australia. RESULTS: The two themes developed from participant responses were: (1) occupational therapy provides comfort and safety and (2) trusting the occupational therapist to know what is needed. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: This study gives insight into the ways in which people with a life-threatening illness experience occupational therapy in palliative care. In addition, it provides a starting point to guide practice that is attentive to the needs of people with a life-threatening illness at end-of-life, thus enhancing client-centered care.

Rights

Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

Citation List Month

December 2017 List

Notes

Using Smart Source Parsing
( (pp Date of Publication: 01 Jun 2016

Citation

Badger S; Macleod R; Honey A, “"It's not about treatment, it's how to improve your life": The lived experience of occupational therapy in palliative care,” Pediatric Palliative Care Library, accessed March 29, 2024, https://pedpalascnetlibrary.omeka.net/items/show/11057.