The Comparison of Family Member's Satisfaction of Palliative Care and Standard Care for Patients With Incurable Cancer

Palliative care is essential for cancer patients. Palliative care programs reduce distress, promote patients’ improvement, increase family satisfaction, reduce hospitalization time and finally reduce costs and increase productivity.
The aim of this study was to compare the effect of palliative care and routine care on the satisfaction level of family members of patients with end stage cancer.
Patients and This quasi-experimental intervention study was conducted in two teaching hospitals of Tehran during year 2014 through convenience sampling on 80 families of patients with end stage cancer. The intervention group received palliative care and the control group received standardized routine care for at least three months. The Famcare questionnaire was used for assessing family satisfaction and statistical t-test and chi-square analysis were used for analyzing the data.
The mean satisfaction of the family members in the intervention and control groups was respectively, 82.8 ± 7.8 and 65.8 ± 9.07, which was statistically significant (P = 0.001). The patients’ family satisfaction of palliative care in the intervention and control groups was respectively 62.5% and 12.5%.
The level of family members’ satisfaction of palliative care was more than routine care. The findings of this study help nurses learn more about palliative care of cancer patients and consequently improve nurses’ performance and increase patients’ families’ satisfaction.