Determination of needs of terminally ill patients in the hospice care

Summary

Background.
The aim of palliative care is the solution of bio-psycho-social and spiritual problems of patients and achievement of the highest possible quality of life. This is related to a need of understanding the patient and his needs. The aim of our research was to determine bio-psycho-social-spiritual needs of patients in hospice care in conjunction with the quality of life and rate of their saturation. Further then to determine, whether the needs vary depending on length of stay in hospice, gender, age and religion.

Methods and results.
The sample consisted of 36 patients from the hospice of St. Luke in Ostrava. For data collection we used modified questionnaire for the identification of needs PNPC and questionnaire for assessing the quality of life EORTC QOL-C30. As the most important need patients considered the privacy (4,80), the opportunity to make their own decisions (4,77), treatment with respect and dignity (4,75) and pain relieve (4,72). The most frequently reported problem was fatigue, sleep and fear of addiction. Patients have positively rated pain prevention. In repeated measurements were reported significant improvements of assessment of saturation needs in 10 items (p<0,05). The patients evaluated overall quality of life rather positively. A relationship between quality of life and saturation of needs in the area of autonomy and physical needs (p<0,05) was found.

Conclusions.
During the stay in hospice patients’ satisfaction with saturation of some needs and overall assessment of quality of life increased.

Key words:
palliative care, need, quality of life, hospice.