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“It's not about treatment, it's how to improve your life”: The lived experience of occupational therapy in palliative care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2015

Sarah Badger ,
Rod Macleod  and
Anne Honey
Sarah Badger*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Rod Macleod
Affiliation:
Northern Clinical School, The University of Sydney, and HammondCare, Sydney, Australia
Anne Honey
Affiliation:
Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Sarah Badger, 67 The Bulwark, Castlecrag NSW 2068, Australia. E-mail: sbad5908@uni.sydney.edu.au
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Abstract

Objectives:

A key aim of palliative care is to improve the quality-of-life of people with a life-threatening illness. Occupational therapists are well positioned to contribute to this aim due to their broad range of interventions, client-centeredness and focus on occupation. However, there is a limited understanding of how occupational therapy contributes to the end-of-life experience, which is crucial to providing optimal care. The aim of this study is to investigate the lived experience of occupational therapy in palliative care for people with a life-threatening illness.

Method:

A hermeneutic interpretive phenomenological approach was adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants recruited from inpatient and outpatient sectors of a specialist palliative care hospital in Sydney, Australia.

Results:

The two themes developed from participant responses were: (1) occupational therapy provides comfort and safety and (2) trusting the occupational therapist to know what is needed.

Significance of results:

This study gives insight into the ways in which people with a life-threatening illness experience occupational therapy in palliative care. In addition, it provides a starting point to guide practice that is attentive to the needs of people with a life-threatening illness at end-of-life, thus enhancing client-centered care.

Keywords

Occupational therapyPalliative careQuality-of-lifePatient satisfactionphenomenology
Type
Original Articles
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , June 2016 , pp. 225 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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