Dying in hospital-staff perceptions on providing quality care

To understand what healthcare staff perceive contributes to the quality of patient and family/whānau experiences of dying and death on a hospital inpatient ward.

A survey was created, piloted and sent to all staff members who had cared for a deceased patient within two working days of their death, at Christchurch Hospital (CH), New Zealand. The survey comprised questions evaluating whether the patients physical, emotional, social or family/whānau needs were met, using both a Likert scale and free-text options. The survey was sent over a three-month period in 2016/2017.

A total of 169 staff responded to the deaths of 51 patients. The majority (71.3%) of staff agreed that "end-of-life care was of a high standard", with the physical symptoms domain holding the highest score for both agreement (68%) and disagreement (13%) that "physical symptoms were well managed". Qualitative analysis of free-text responses revealed three themes: coordinated care (service delivery, complex case or communication needs, teamwork); culture of practice (dignity, trust, respect and relationships); and complexity of care (encompassing complex physical symptoms or patient or family/whānau interpersonal dynamics).

Evaluation of quality of death in hospitals can be enhanced by routine use of surveys of staff who cared for the deceased person. Such surveys could comprise part of a suite of tools to provide a holistic view of dying and death, complementing methods such as retrospective audits and family/whānau interviews.