Enhancing rural community engagement through palliative care networks: A scoping review

Autores organización

• 

  Lina María Vargas Escobar

  Autor

• 

  Miguel Antonio Sanchez Cardenas

  Autor

Autores

• Hernández-Rincón E.H.
• León-Delgado M.X.
• Muñoz-Medina S.E.
• Mantilla-Manoslava N.
• Correa-Morales J.E.
• Amorocho-Morales J.D.

Unidades de investigación

• Cuidado de la Salud y Calidad de Vida

  

  Investigador

  Miguel Antonio Sanchez Cardenas

• Salud y Sociedad UEB

  Investigador

  Olga Stella Diaz Usme

Resumen

Palliative care is a crucial discipline that alleviates suffering and enhances the quality of life for patients with life-limiting illnesses and their families. However, there is gap globally between the need for and availability of these services. Integrated health service networks offer a promising solution to address this gap in rural areas, by coordinating care across different levels and sectors. This scoping review aimed at identifying the key characteristics of palliative care networks in rural communities. A broad search without time limits was conducted in four databases. Analysis and synthesis were conducted using Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling. Sixteen studies were included, revealing four key themes regarding the development of palliative care networks in rural areas: community engagement is essential to secure the reach of rural networks, tailored approaches acknowledging diversity enrich these networks, team-centric efforts involving stakeholder coordination ensure successful implementation, and a multifaceted approach—empowering non-traditional stakeholders and incorporating technology resources into primary health services—dynamizes palliative care delivery in rural areas. These findings underscore the potential of collaborative and innovative approaches to enhance the accessibility and effectiveness of palliative care in underserved rural communities. Further cost-effectiveness studies are warranted to better understand the impact these strategies can have on health systems. © 2024 The Author(s)

Keywords

• Community engagement; Health networks; Palliative care; Public health; Rural communities;Community Networks; Community Participation; Health Services Accessibility; Humans; Palliative Care; Quality of Life; Rural Health Services; Rural Population; adult; community; cost effectiveness analysis; health service; human; palliative therapy; public health; quality of life; review; rural area; rural population; scoping review; community care; community participation; health care access; organization and management; procedures; rural health care