Palliative Care Within the Primary Health Care Setting in Australia: A Scoping Review

Deborah van Gaans; Katrina Erny-Albrecht; Jennifer Tieman

doi:10.3389/phrs.2022.1604856

Palliative Care Within the Primary Health Care Setting in Australia: A Scoping Review

Public Health Rev. 2022 Sep 6:43:1604856. doi: 10.3389/phrs.2022.1604856. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Deborah van Gaans¹, Katrina Erny-Albrecht¹, Jennifer Tieman¹

Affiliation

¹ Research Centre for Palliative Care, Death and Dying, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

Abstract

Objectives: This scoping review identifies and details the scope of practice of health professionals who provide palliative care within the primary health setting in Australia. Methods: A scoping review approach was conducted on the Cinahl (Ebsco), Scopus, Medline (Ovid) and PubMed databases to extract articles from 1 December 2015 to 1 December 2020. Broad text words and MeSH headings were used with relevance to palliative care, general practice, primary health, and community setting. Extracted journal articles were limited to those based on the Australian population or Australian health system. Results: Eighty-four papers met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. The review identified the following health professional roles within the Primary Health Care setting undertaking palliative care: General Practitioner, Nurse, Pharmacist, Paramedics, Carers, and Allied Health professionals. Conclusion: This review offers a first understanding of the individual health professional roles and multidisciplinary team approach to actively providing palliative care within the Primary Health Care setting in Australia.

Keywords: general practitioners; palliative care; primary healthcare; public health; workforce.

Publication types

Review