Background: Emergency department-based palliative care services are increasing, but research to develop these services rarely includes input from emergency clinicians, jeopardizing the effectiveness of subsequent palliative care interventions.
Aim: To collaboratively identify with emergency clinicians' improvement priorities for emergency department-based palliative care for older people.
Design: This was one component of an experience-based co-design project, conducted using semi-structured interviews and feedback sessions.
Setting/participants: In-depth interviews with 15 emergency clinicians (nurses and doctors) at a large teaching hospital emergency department in the United Kingdom exploring experiences of palliative care delivery for older people. A thematic analysis identified core challenges that were presented to 64 clinicians over five feedback sessions, validating interview findings, and identifying shared priorities for improving palliative care delivery.
Results: Eight challenges emerged: patient age; access to information; communication with patients, family members, and clinicians; understanding of palliative care; role uncertainty; complex systems and processes; time constraints; and limited training and education. Through feedback sessions, clinicians selected four challenges as improvement priorities: time constraints; communication and information; systems and processes; and understanding of palliative care. As resulting improvement plans evolved, "training and education" replaced "time constraints" as a priority.
Conclusion: Clinician priorities for improving emergency department-based palliative care were identified through collaborative, iterative processes. Though generally aware of older palliative patients' needs, clinicians struggled to provide high-quality care due to a range of complex factors. Further research should identify whether priorities are shared across other emergency departments, and develop, implement, and evaluate strategies developed by clinicians.
Keywords: Palliative care; emergency department; frail older adults.