Indicators for the detection of spiritual and psychoemotional needs in Palliative Care. A Delphi Study.
Abstract
Aim: To examine the suitability of the items established by the Single Referral Document (DUD) for identifying and recording the spiritual (SN) and psycho-emotional needs (PN) of palliative care patients, updating the respective indicators based on expert consensus, since this pioneering and effective tool for systematizing and coordinating palliative care has maintained the same indicators since its creation.
Design: A Delphi study with 17 experts over three rounds. Each round included open and semi-open questions regarding the importance of the DUD itself, the value of distinguishing between spiritual and psycho-emotional aspects, and the type of training that experts in these areas should have. The items currently included in the DUD, as well as new items proposed in this study or by the experts themselves, were evaluated numerically. Consensus was considered achieved when the IQR ≤ 1, the CV ≤ 0.25, and the percentage of scores of 4 or 5 was > 80%.
Results: Consensus was reached on five of the six current PNs, and three new ones were incorporated. Only one of the currently recorded SNs remained, and six new ones were added. The importance of differentiating between both dimensions and having specific training and professionals for each was highlighted.
Conclusions: An update of the indicators is proposed to better identify psycho-emotional and spiritual needs in the DUD, aiming for comprehensive palliative care and professional coordination across the different phases of palliative care.
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