Communication problems and conflicts in palliative care. An explorative research project to improve the quality of care at the end of life.

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Andreas Kruse; Professor Dr. Hartmut Remmers
• Subject Area: Public Health, Healthcare Research, Social and Occupational Medicine ; Empirical Social Research ; Biogerontology and Geriatric Medicine
• Term: from 2014 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 260627283

Care of critically ill and dying people is ideally based on a close and trustful relation between patients, family members, and professional nurses. Realities, however, are more often than not characterised by diverse ethical, communicative, or interpersonal conflicts, which present an additional source of strain for all affected parties. The project is divided in two parts and aims to explore and analyse these situations of conflict and their causal relations in different contexts of care (viz. hospitals, retirement homes, palliative care, hospices, facilities for the handicapped, and outpatient care) and to subsequently develop targeted and scientifically sound solutions. In order to identify problematic situations a methodically explorative approach is chosen. Personal remarks and depictions of individual experiences as well as expectations of patients and family members (N=74) towards professional nurses are analyzed. Qualitative data collection is conducted though videotaped interviews, which is successively subjected to content analysis. First characteristic findings then allow for exemplary interview sequences to be cut and used as a basis for discussions with professional nurses (N=24). These nurses are asked to participate in focus groups in order to present their assessment and propose possible solutions. An analysis of the collected data helps to identify central dimensions of conflict in palliative care with special attention to the different settings (places of death). The research project is conducted over a period of 24 months at Osnabrueck and Heidelberg. Based on the results of both partners, the development, implementation, and evaluation of a sustainable professional training for professional nurses through a findings-transfer project, as defined by the DFG, is intended.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants