In-patient nursing, palliative and hospice care in the time of COVID-19 (InPace)

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about changes in many parts of society, including the healthcare system. In care, and even more so in palliative and hospice care, challenges were particularly complex: patients in these areas are not particularly vulnerable to a severe course of COVID-19; measures necessary to contain the spread of the virus complicate care itself.

The aim of the InPace project was to take a multi-stakeholder and intersectional perspective to 1) identify the strategies developed by care, palliative and hospice care providers in response to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2) examine the perception of these strategies by patients and relatives and 3) identify good practice approaches.

Based on the results and using a framework concept of ethical decision-making, a catalogue of actions was developed and agreed upon, in which the elements and determinants of good practice approaches are conceptualised and recommendations are given for overcoming pandemic-related challenges in nursing, palliative and hospice care.