Assessment of Unmet Needs and Barriers to End-of-Life Care provision in Kazakhstan. A Qualitative Study: Assessment of Unmet Needs and Barriers to End-of-Life Care provision in Kazakhstan. A Qualitative Study

Introduction:
Palliative care, a holistic multidisciplinary approach for those
persons with terminal diseases, providing relief for physical,
emotional, psychosocial and spiritual suffering of both the
patients and their families and to support the dignity of all
involved in the process of dying. The purpose of this
qualitative research project is to identify the barriers for end-of-life care provision in Kazakhstan and to provide recommendations on how to integrate and assure high quality
palliative care for patients within the cultural context of
Kazakhstan.
Methods:
Our proposed research project employed qualitative research
methods, including semi-structured in-depth interviews using
grounded theory. We conducted purposive recruiting with
content analysis and semi-structured interviews until saturation was achieved. The interviews have been conducted at the
University Medical Center (UMC) teaching hospitals, including National Research Center for Maternal and Child Health
and the National Children’s Rehabilitation Center. The total
number of participants were 65 individuals, of whom 26 were
medical doctors, 20 nurses, 7 speech therapists, 6 psychologists, 4 educators and 2 social workers. All participants had
experience working with terminally ill patients, family
members, and caregivers. The data was then translated into
English. Analysis of the interview data have been performed by
using the computer assisted software analysis package - NVivo.
Institutional review board (IRB) approval of the Nazarbayev
University has been received, assuring informed consent and
confidentiality safeguards in the research.
Results:
The study findings indicate the evidence of growing demand in
training of healthcare professionals, inadequate provision of
pain relief and lack of public awareness about palliation as
primary obstacles for palliative care development in
Kazakhstan.
Key messages:
The findings of the study are very important to help
stakeholders to focus on the development of training
opportunities for palliative care specialists.
The results of the study help to develop milestones and
concrete strategy for integration of palliative care services
into the national healthcare system of Kazakhstan.