"Strategies for the implementation of palliative care education and organizational interventions in long-term care facilities: A scoping review"

SAGE Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care

This episode features Danni Collingridge Moore (International Observatory on End of Life Care, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK). The provision and quality of palliative care delivered in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) varies and does not always meet the needs of the residents. Interventions to improve palliative care have been shown to lead to improvements in the quality of care received by long-term care facilities residents. The implementation of such interventions and the factors that facilitate their uptake within an long-term care facilities are not well understood. This paper provides a scoping review of implementation strategies used by palliative care interventions in long-term care facilities. This review has identified four organizational strategies for the implementation of palliative care interventions: facilitation, education/training, internal engagement and external engagement. Three developmental stages comprise the implementation process: conditions to introduce the intervention, embedding the intervention within day-to-day practice and sustaining ongoing change. The implementation strategies used varied across the studies identified; how implementation can support intervention uptake requires. The implementation strategies used to implement palliative care interventions in long-term care facilities are underreported, and separating characteristics of an intervention from the implementation process is complex. Further guidance is needed on the reporting of implementation strategies. The findings of this review may inform the development and implementation of future palliative care interventions in this setting and how they can be implemented more effectively