Sick persons at the end of their lives: Experiences related to their accessibility to social-sanitary resources

Abstract

Objective: From the perspective of their health providers, to identify the main limitations and difficulties which persons at the end of their lives have experienced in relation to their accessibility to social-sanitary resources.

Method: This is a phenomenological-focused qualitative and multi-centric study which conducted 5 discussion groups and 41 in-depth interviews in Andalucia, Spain. The participant selection was limited to those health providers who had suffered the death of a family member within the past two years. The Giorgi method was chosen to analyze and back-up the data. Atlas ti 6.0 was also used.

Results: From the analysis, several sanitary-assistance-level categories arose including: the suffering at the urgency services, the need of intimacy, the feelings of loneliness, and the life at home.

Conclusions: The care providers described a series of barriers to the access to social-sanitary resources highlighting the very general attention protocols which did not integrally consider the illness process of the beloved, and the need to an individualized room while admission at the hospital. Although while at home, these persons feel protected under the attention of the primary care professionals, they have difficulties to having access to psychological support at the palliative care units. Therefore, it is a priority that, from the sanitary system, the essential assisting attention can be warranted, thus supporting these sick persons to go through death in dignity.