Evaluation of symptoms and mobile services in palliative care patients

• Main Authors: Ahmet Şen, Eda Türe, Mahcube Cubukcu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SERNEV 2021-05-01
• Series: Family Practice and Palliative Care
• Subjects: palliative care; mobile health units; medical oncology; catheters; palyatif bakım; hareketli sağlık üniteleri; tıbbi onkoloji; kateterler
• Online Access: https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/fppc/issue/62141/814339

Introduction: Palliative Mobile Health Unit started to serve in in February 2019 at University of Health Sciences Samsun Training and Research Hospital. In our study, it is aimed to evaluate the symptoms and ongoing status of the registered patients by mobile health services of palliative care unit.Methods: The population of this descriptive, cross-sectional study consists of individuals who are registered in Samsun Training and Research Hospital's palliative mobile unit and discharged from the palliative service. In our study, all patients enrolled in mobile services were evaluated. The data were obtained from computer records. Pearson chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to evaluate the data. p <0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: Since the introduction of palliative mobile services for discharged patients in our hospital, 112 patients have been reached. At the time of this study, 46.42% of these patients are still provided with palliative mobile service. The average age of the participants is 65.60 ± 16.34 years, and 54.35% of the patients are women. 64.20% of the patients are fully bedridden. The patients we see most frequently (64.24%) are patients with a diagnosis of oncology. Foley catheter is the most performed procedure as an invasive procedure.Conclusion: Our patients enrolled in the palliative mobile unit were mostly bedridden and oncology patients. With palliative mobile services, it is aimed to improve the quality of life of patients who encounter problems arising from life-threatening diseases after discharge and to evaluate symptom management. It may be appropriate to disseminate palliative mobile services across the country by evaluating the results.