COVID-19: Guidance on Palliative care from a European Respiratory Society International Task Force.

Janssen, Daisy J A; Ekström, Magnus; Currow, David C; Johnson, Miriam J; Maddocks, Mathew; Simonds, Anita K; Tonia, Thomy; Marsaa, Kristoffer (2020). COVID-19: Guidance on Palliative care from a European Respiratory Society International Task Force. European respiratory journal, 56(3), p. 2002583. European Respiratory Society 10.1183/13993003.02583-2020

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BACKGROUND

Many people are dying from COVID-19, but consensus guidance on palliative care in COVID-19 is lacking. This new life-threatening disease has put healthcare systems under pressure, with increased need of palliative care provided to many patients by clinicians with limited prior experience in this field. Therefore, we aimed to make consensus recommendations for palliative care for patients with COVID-19 using the Convergence of Opinion on Recommendations and Evidence (CORE) process.

METHODS

We invited 90 international experts to complete an online survey including stating their agreement, or not, with 14 potential recommendations. At least 70% agreement on directionality was needed to provide consensus recommendations. If consensus was not achieved on the first round, a second round was conducted.

RESULTS

68 experts (75.6%) responded in the first round. Most participants were experts in palliative care, respiratory medicine or critical care medicine. In the first round, consensus was achieved on 13 recommendations based upon indirect evidence and clinical experience. In the second round, 58/68 (85.3%) of the first round experts responded, resulting in consensus also for the 14th recommendation.

CONCLUSIONS

This multi-national task force provides consensus recommendations for palliative care for patients with COVID-19 concerning: advance care planning; (pharmacological) palliative treatment of breathlessness; clinician-patient communication; remote clinician-family communication; palliative care involvement in patients with serious COVID-19; spiritual care; psychosocial care; and bereavement care. Future studies are needed to generate empirical evidence for these recommendations.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Review Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM)

UniBE Contributor:

Tonia, Thomai

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 360 Social problems & social services

ISSN:

0903-1936

Publisher:

European Respiratory Society

Language:

English

Submitter:

Andrea Flükiger-Flückiger

Date Deposited:

22 Jul 2020 20:47

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:39

Publisher DOI:

10.1183/13993003.02583-2020

PubMed ID:

32675211

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.145298

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/145298

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