Towards a better understanding of what palliative sedated patients experience. Linking numbers to experiences.

Scriptie/Masterproef: Doctoral Thesis

Samenvatting

Once death is imminent, a major concern is to assure maximal comfort. In case of untreatable suffering, palliative sedation may be chosen to assure comfort by reducing the patient’s level of consciousness. An important question is whether a patient is still suffering or not. In case of (deep) palliative sedation communication is usually impossible, therefore caregivers have to assess the patient’s comfort by observation. Recently, more sophisticated techniques from the neurosciences (fMRI, EEG) have found out that sometimes consciousness and pain is undetectable with the traditional behavioral methods.

In our first study we observed patients from the moment that palliative sedation was initiated until death and evaluated to what degree subjective caregiver assessments of comfort based on behavioural observations were in line with the results from two monitoring devices that measured objective neurophysiological parameters of level of sedation and pain.

In our second study we looked into what influences the attitudes of professional caregivers and family members regarding the use of such monitoring devices during continuous sedation until death. We developed a model that explained emerging attitudes and indentified several facilitators and barriers to inform future implementation strategies.
In addition to the main studies, a self-reflective process is described as a tool to proactively prepare for doing a study on a very sensitive topic and bolster researcher resilience.
Datum prijs29 sep 2020
Originele taalEnglish
Prijsuitreikende instantie
  • Vrije Universiteit Brussel
  • University of Liege
BegeleiderReginald Deschepper (Promotor), Steve Laureys (Promotor), Johan Bilsen (Co-promotor), Wim Distelmans (Jury), Koen Pardon (Jury), Vincent Bonhomme (Jury), Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse (Jury), Karin Hannes (Jury) & Ria Reis (Jury)

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