Identifying nursing home residents’ unmet palliative care needs

Study 1 Findings: The first output of the project found that different studies use a wide variety of methods, tools, and guidelines to identify unmet palliative care needs in nursing home residents, and that there is no consensus regarding the definition of ‘unmet palliative care needs’.

This study suggests that future research should aim to establish a clear definition of ‘unmet palliative care needs’ and to develop standardised, evidence‑based approaches tailored to the nursing home setting.

Study 2 Findings: This paper presents the first review to consolidate research on palliative care interventions in nursing homes. The findings of this review indicate that integrated intelligent physical systems and decision support systems have yet to be explored. A broad range of machine learning solutions remain unused within the context of nursing home palliative care. These findings are of relevance to both nurses and computer scientists, who may use this review to reflect on their own practices when developing such technology.

Study 3 Findings: In the third output of the project, the research team emphasises that the projected increase in Ireland’s population will result in a need for a significant increase in the nursing home bed capacity, and corresponding rise in trained staff. This is essential to enhance residents’ quality of life and reduce reliance on distant healthcare teams, especially in rural areas.

Ongoing at present is a concept analysis of nursing home residents’ unmet palliative care needs and a cross sectional survey of perspectives and practices regarding palliative care screening/assessment and available technology in nursing homes in Ireland.