The Impact of the COVID-۱۹ Pandemic on the Quality of Palliative Care in Nursing Homes: A Systematic Review

Introduction: The elderly people live in nursing homes need special palliative care due to their age and physical conditions, simultaneous suffering from several chronic diseases such as (cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, etc.), psychological-spiritual problems and group life. During the COVID-۱۹ pandemic, the need for palliative care in this group had increased significantly for the reasons mentioned above. The purpose of this review was to investigate and compare the quality level of palliative care in nursing homes before and during the COVID-۱۹ pandemic.Material and Method: PubMed, Google Scholar, and SID databases were searched for relevant articles published through the years ۲۰۱۷-۲۰۲۲. The terms ‘palliative care, nursing home, elderly and covid_۱۹’ were used to accelerate the search. Then, by applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the full text of the articles was examined. Thus, a total ۱۰ studies were selected and analyzed in this review.Results: All the articles agreed on the negative impact of the covid_۱۹ pandemic on the quality of palliative care of nursing home residents and the unexpected challenges of dealing with them. The high number of deaths in nursing homes during the pandemic and the deterioration of the mental and physical condition of the residents who were not infected, compared to the before of the pandemic, was another confirmation of this issue. Death statistics in nursing homes due to group living, lack of resources and equipment located in the place, lack of health care workers and human resources and their limited knowledge have increased significantly. Mental and psychological problems such as seclusion, depression and stress due to quarantine and The limited communication with the family was also intensified.Conclusions: According to the results of the studies and the consensus about the reduction in the quality of palliative care, including physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual pain in the residents of nursing homes during the covid_۱۹ pandemic compared to the before, we conclude that governments and heads of countries, They should equip the nursing homes for future pandemics by increasing the resources, equipment and workers of the nursing homes and also increase the knowledge of workers by holding courses.

Keywords:

Palliative Care , Nursing Home , Elderly , Covid_۱۹ , Systematic Review