Health Care Study of Hospiscare

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Evidence based practice
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

HEALTHCARE1
Identification of research problem- Hospice care refers to the care that is particularly
designed with the aim of delivering supportive care to patients who are in the last stages of a
terminal illness. This kind of care approach places more emphasis on quality of life and
comfort of patients, in place of cure. The primary goal of hospice care is to help patients stay
comfortable, while offering them relief from pain, such that they are able to utilise their
maximum potential. Patients suffering from terminal illness like cancer generally suffer from
dyspnea, pain and distress during end of life, and are therefore subjected to patient-centred
and alternative care models for attenuating their sufferings, often within their home
environment.
The primary philosophy of hospice is to deliver assistance to the patient’s social,
spiritual, and emotional needs, in addition to the clinical symptoms. It has often been found
that not only are the patients subjected to care services, but their family members are also
provided counselling and bereavement services. The research problem in this case is
withdrawal of family members having patients who are being provided treatment in hospice
care. This evidence based practice will explore the underlying perceptions and outlook of the
family members, in relation to the situation.
PEO components- PEO is a framework that is particular used while investigating or
exploring the likelihood and/or prognosis of development of particular conditions, as a
consequence of an exposure. The table given below highlights the components of the
framework that helped in framing the research question:
Patient/Population Family members
Exposure Having patients in hospice care
Outcome Perception, feelings and outlook
Table 1- PEO terms

HEALTHCARE2
The research question identified relevant to this case was: “What are the perceptions
and feelings of family members regarding hospice care for patients?”
Databases- Electronic databases and search engines have been identified effective for
extraction of articles published in institutional repositories, academic journals, and scientific
archives. In other words, a database refers to a searchable assortment of scholarly
information. While conducting the library search for the research question identified above,
the two databases of CINAHL and MEDLINE were considered appropriate.
CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) contains English
language and foreign articles on allied health, nursing, healthcare, and biomedicine. First
published in the year 1961, it is a definitive search tool that facilitates gaining complete and
rapid access to evidence-based information and journals. The other database of
MEDLINE (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online, or MEDLARS
Online) can be referred to as a repository of biomedical and life sciences information and
comprises of academic journals on a range of disciplines like pharmacy, nursing, medicine,
dentistry, healthcare and veterinary health.
Search strategy and one database- Of the two databases mentioned above, CINAHL
was selected for extraction of articles that were relevant to the research question. The primary
aim was to recognise all available pertinent scientific publications for minimising potential
bias, while reducing the quantity of unrelated articles retrieved. Hence, the selection of
CINAHL database was a significant decision. Following identification of the research
question, controlled vocabulary and particular search terms were entered in the electronic
database for retrieving resources that provided definite answer to the question. The search
terms used were namely, family members, relative, next of kin, family, perceptions, attitudes,
opinion, experience, view, reflection, beliefs, hospice, and terminal care. Moreover, all kinds
of spelling variance, abbreviations and synonyms were also taken into consideration while