Journal article
Home telehealth and paediatric palliative care: Clinician perceptions of what is stopping us?
BMC Palliative Care, Vol.13, 29
2014
Abstract
Background: Advances in technology have made the use of telehealth in the home setting a feasible option for palliative care clinicians to provide clinical care and support. However, despite being widely available and accessible, telehealth has still not been widely adopted either inAustralia or internationally. The study aim was to investigate the barriers, enablers and perceived usefulness for an established home telehealth program in paediatric palliative care from the perspective of clinicians. Methods: Semi-structured interviews (n = 10) were undertaken with palliative care clinicians in a tertiary paediatric hospital to identify attitudes to, satisfaction with, and perceived benefits and limitations of, home telehealth in palliative care. Iterative analysis was used to thematically analyse data and identify themes and core concepts from interviews. Results: Four themes are reported: managing relationships; expectations of clinicians; co-ordination, and the telehealth compromise. Core concepts that emerged from the data were the perceived ability to control clinical encounters in a virtual environment and the need to trust technology. These concepts help explain the telehealth compromise and low utilisation of the home telehealth program. Conclusions: Effective communication between caregivers and clinicians is recognised as a core value of palliative care. Home telehealth has the potential to provide a solution to inequity of access to care, facilitate peer support and maintain continuity of care with families. However, significant limitations and challenges may impede its use. The virtual space creates additional challenges for communication, which clinicians and families may not intuitively understand. For home telehealth to be integrated into routine care, greater understanding of the nature of communication in the virtual space is required.
Details
- Title
- Home telehealth and paediatric palliative care: Clinician perceptions of what is stopping us?
- Authors
- Natalie K Bradford (Author) - University of QueenslandJeanine Young (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringNigel R Armfield (Author) - University of QueenslandAnthony Herbert (Author) - University of QueenslandAnthony C Smith (Author) - University of Queensland
- Publication details
- BMC Palliative Care, Vol.13, 29; 18
- Publisher
- BioMed Central Ltd.
- Date published
- 2014
- DOI
- 10.1186/1472-684X-13-29
- ISSN
- 1472-684X
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2014 Bradford et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Health - Nursing; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedicine - Legacy
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99448743202621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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