The Assessment of the Knowledge of Health Care Operators on Paliative Care in Vlora Hospital

Palliative care is in its infancy in Vlore city and there are no specialized care structures for terminally ill patients in their homes. Their problems are treated in regional hospital, in the pathology ward. Aim To evaluate the knowledge of health care operators in palliative care in order to determine their informative needs. Methods In this transversal study we used the Europall-Palliative-Care-Services-QuestionnaireBE-EuroPall. Results During 2014 in this hospital the staff has provided palliative care for respiratory, oncologic, cardiac and renal diseases. Nurse, medical doctor and specialized oncologist deliver the care. Cooperation with psychologist, physiotherapist and social worker almost do not exist. Two of the most problematic symptoms to manage are respiratory and pain. Most of the physical symptoms of these patients are managed based on subjective evaluation of the professionals, very little on the protocols or experience of colleges, 51 % do not use pain evaluation methods VAS, NRS and WHO Analgesic Scale or they do not even know the scale, 20 % use it always, 26 % sometimes. The staff has started to use the evaluation of the quality care. The personnel need to be informed on physical, bioethics, spiritual aspects of palliative care. Conclusions Training of the staff on palliative care is an urgent need. The use of evaluation instruments of the patient will raise the quality of the nursing palliative care. It is necessary to develop structures to help the terminally ill patients, in order to treat them with dignity, treat their pain and resolve other problems.