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

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought changes in many parts of society, including the healthcare system. In nursing care, and especially in palliative and hospice care, challenges have been particularly complex: patients in these areas are particularly susceptible to a severe course of COVID-19, and the measures necessary to contain the spread of the made caregiving itself more difficult.

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

Based on these findings and using a framework of ethical decision-making, operational guidelines were developed and consented to, in which the elements and determinants of good practice approaches are conceptualised and recommendations are given for addressing pandemic-related challenges in nursing, palliative and hospice care.