Designing the post-pandemic hospice environment: "The last place"

Where and how people die is a significant concern of human life and society (Worpole, 2009). In these days, people die either in their home or in an end-of-life care facility, such as hospice. Hospice is a place to provide end-of-life care to individuals certified as "terminal." Hospice care or end-of-life care is a multidisciplinary care and support (non-curative) system designed to address the physical, emotional, psychosocial, and spiritual concerns of terminal patients and their families. Thus, the facility design is significantly different in various dimensions. For example, hospice patients are mostly bed-bound, and a patient's family accommodation plays a significant role in the patient's dying experience. Providing a supportive physical environment of hospice has an imperative impact on the patient "quality of life" and the possibility of a "good death." With the COVID-19 challenges, it has become significant to explore the best possible solutions of hospice facility design. This chapter discusses the 11 therapeutic goals of hospice care environment which was developed by Kader and Diaz Moore in 2015 considering dying experiences. The physical settings of hospice along with the carefully designed organizational environment can contribute to the realization of desired therapeutic goals and have a positive effect on the lives of dying patients. This chapter discusses each therapeutic goal and how hospice facility design can support these goals with a few examples and presents six major design-related challenges of post-pandemic (COVID-19) hospice care facilities. Lastly, several prospective design concepts have explored considering pandemic resiliency. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

(Re)designing the continuum of care for older adults: The future of long-term care settings

This book broadens the visioning on new care environments that are designed to be inclusive, progressive, and convergent with the needs of an aging population. The contents cover a range of long-term care (LTC) settings in a single collection to address the needs of a wide audience. Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, rethinking the spatial design of care facilities in order to prepare for future respiratory and contagious pathogens is one of the prime concerns across the globe, along with social connectedness and autonomy in care settings. This book contributes to the next generation of knowledge and understanding of the growing field of the design of technology, programs, and environments for LTC that are more effective in infection prevention and control as well as social connectedness. To address these issues, the chapters are organized in four sections: Part I: Home- and community-based care;Part II: Facility-based care;Part III: Memory care and end-of-life care;and Part IV: Evidence-based applied projects and next steps. (Re)designing the Continuum of Care for Older Adults is an essential resource for researchers, practitioners, educators, policymakers, and students associated with LTC home and healthcare settings. With diverse topics in theory, substantive issues, and methods, the contributions from notable researchers and scholars cover a range of innovative programming, environments, and technologies which can impact the changing needs and support for older adults and their families across the continuum of care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Prioritizing Health Equity in Palliative and End-of-Life Care

The COVID-19 pandemic brought to light significant health disparities in illness and death due to a person's race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Also, those factors cause significant inequities in access to palliative and end-of-life care that remain largely unaddressed. The quality of care people receive once they are given a life-threatening diagnosis or as they approach the end of their life depends upon race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and who they love. Such disparities in treatment are unconscionable and must be addressed. They warrant serious attention from policymakers and clinicians as well as focused efforts to find solutions. Copyright 2022 American Society on Aging;all rights reserved.

Training interprofessional teamwork in palliative care: A pilot study of online simulation activity for registered nurses and nursing associates

Palliative care promotes quality of life for seriously ill and dying patients and their loved ones. An ageing population with more complex chronic and life-limiting conditions will increase the demand for competence in the field. Interprofessional cooperation will be a critical factor in achieving this. Such cooperation within the field of nursing is critical because of registered nurses' (RNs) role and function in patient- and family-centred care. A project focusing on learning interdisciplinary teamwork using simulation as a learning approach was established. Two groups of students participated in the project: one group consisted of 17 nursing associates who were participating in a 2-year part-time study programme in cancer care and palliative care at a vocational college. The second group was made up of 28 RNs, a social worker and learning disability nurses, all postgraduate students taking part in a part-time interdisciplinary programme in palliative care at master's degree level.Simulation activity is usually conducted with participants physically present, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic situation, this was not possible. A pilot project was conducted where simulation activity was tried out as online learning. RNs and nursing associates (NA) participated, and their cooperation was focused on palliative/end-of-life care. They were all trained clinicians in two different study programmes.In this chapter, we present how simulation activity with participants physically present was transformed into an online learning situation. A brief presentation of students' and teachers' reflections on the pedagogical advantages and disadvantages of such a transition is also included. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Dying in isolation

Palliative care is a nursing and medical specialty focused on providing comfort to those with chronic, life-limiting illness from diagnosis to the end of life through symptom management, aligning goals of care, and providing psychosocial/spiritual support. During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions experienced new, rapid symptoms and many faced untimely deaths. As experts in end-of-life care, palliative care clinicians played a vital role in pandemic care. Yet, the delivery of palliative care required significant adjustments due to visitor restrictions and isolation precautions. These changes included, but are not limited to, communication styles, involvement of family in symptom management, and adoption of telehealth. Throughout pandemic care, palliative care clinicians were also helping patients, families, and clinicians navigate a multitude of ethical decisions, including supporting frontline healthcare workers. This chapter focuses on palliative and end-of-life issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights reserved.

Managing the end of life in COVID patients. The role of palliative care in emergency departments during the pandemic.

Managing COVID-19 patients has been an extremely difficult and dramatic task, especially for emergency departments during the strongest waves of the pandemic in Italy. Medical staff and health professionals were redeployed from their work setting to COVID units; many were overwhelmed by the deaths of so many patients in a very short time. This work aimed to explore palliative care health professionals' and physicians' perceptions of end-of-life care management in COVID units during the first two waves of the pandemic in Italy. Qualitative data was collected through 24 semi-structured in-depth interviews. The participants were palliative care medical and health professionals redeployed, or in a supporting role, COVID units from the most affected areas of northern and central Italy. The interview questions were focused on four thematic areas concerning different aspects of the role and responsibilities of the palliative care specialist (physician and healthcare professional). A brief presentation of the main sociological literature on end-of-life management in hospital contexts will be firstly presented and discussed to offer a theoretical frame. Subsequently, some of the most significant results that emerged from our research will be illustrated concerning the role played by palliative care professionals during the pandemic and the relevance of the palliative care approach in emergency contexts.

The Missing Farewell: End-of-Life Care and Good br Death during the COVID-19 Pandemic

End-of-life care aims to provide supportive physical, social, mental, and spiritual care for terminally ill patients and their family members. Not only does it help patients approach the end of their lives with dignity and peace, but it also helps family members overcome the grief of losing a loved one. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, ethical dilemmas have emerged within the field of end-of-life care, and it has been challenging to help people experience a good death. This article takes the example of the pandemic-related restrictions in Hong Kong that affected visiting and funeral arrangements. It analyzes the impact of anti-pandemic measures on end-of-life care and the provision of a good death. It examines the ethical justifications of these measures through the Confucian themes of human-orientedness, familism, and death rituals, and it outlines practical implications for end-of-life care under similar circumstances.

Quality of End-of-Life Care for Older Adults with Dementia during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: End-of-life (EOL) care during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been a concern under the overwhelming pressure of health care service systems. People with dementia often receive suboptimal EOL care; thus, they may be at particular risk of poor care quality during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigated the interaction between dementia and pandemic on the proxies' overall ratings and ratings for 13 indicators. DESIGN: A longitudinal study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Data were collected from 1050 proxies for deceased participants in the National Health and Aging Trends Study, a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries aged ≥65 years. Participants were included if they had died between 2018 and 2021. METHODS: Participants were categorized into 4 groups depending on the period of death (before vs during the COVID-19 pandemic) and having no vs probable dementia, as defined by a previously validated algorithm. The quality of EOL care was assessed through postmortem interviews with bereaved caregivers. Multivariable binomial logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the main effects of dementia and pandemic period, and the interaction between dementia and pandemic on ratings of quality indicators. RESULTS: A total of 423 participants had probable dementia at the baseline. People with dementia who died were less likely to talk about religion in the last month of life than those without dementia. Decedents during the pandemic were more likely to have an overall rating of care as being not excellent than those before the onset of the pandemic. However, the interaction between dementia and pandemic was not significant in the 13 indicators and the overall rating of EOL care quality. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Most EOL care indicators preserved the level of quality, regardless of dementia and the COVID-19 pandemic. Disparities in spiritual care may exist across people with and without dementia.

Japanese Local Governments' Dissemination Activities for Advance Care Planning: A Descriptive Analysis of a Nationwide Survey during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This study aims to compare the awareness-raising activities between municipalities with and without focused anti-infection measures during the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Descriptive analysis was conducted using a nationwide self-administered questionnaire survey on municipalities' activities for residents and for healthcare providers and care workers (HCPs) in October 2022 in Japan. This study included 433 municipalities that had conducted awareness-raising activities before 2019 Fiscal Year. Workshops for residents were conducted in 85.2% of the municipalities, and they were more likely to be conducted in areas with focused anti-infection measures than those without measures (86.8% vs. 75.4%). Additionally, 85.9% of the municipalities were impacted by the pandemic; 50.1% canceled workshops, while 26.0% switched to a web-based style. Activities for HCPs were conducted in 55.2-63.7% of the municipalities, and they were more likely to be conducted in areas with focused anti-infection measures. A total of 50.6-62.1% of the municipalities changed their workshops for HCPs to a web-based style. Comparisons between areas with and without focused anti-infection measures indicated that the percentages of those impacted for all activities were not significantly different. In conclusion, awareness-raising activities in municipalities were conducted with new methods during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using information technology is essential to further promote such activities for residents.

Barriers and facilitators to goals of care conversations with Veteran residents of community nursing homes.

BACKGROUND: Despite evidence that structured goals of care conversations (GoCCs) and documentation of life-sustaining treatment (LST) preferences improve the delivery of goal-concordant care for seriously ill patients, rates of completion remain low among nursing home residents. The Preferences Elicited and Respected for Seriously Ill Veterans through Enhanced Decision-Making (PERSIVED) program aims to improve the consistent documentation of LST preferences among Veterans receiving care in veterans affairs (VA)-paid community nursing homes (CNH); however, the barriers and facilitators of completing and documenting GoCCs in this unique context of care have not been described. METHODS: We conducted semi-structured, qualitative interviews with key stakeholders of the VA CNH programs located at six VA Medical Centers between July 2021 and July 2022. With a rapid approach to analysis, interview transcripts were reduced into memo templates using the Tailored Implementation for Chronic Disease Checklist and coded and analyzed using qualitative data analysis software. RESULTS: The 40 participants consisted of nurses (n = 13), social workers (n = 25), and VA physicians (n = 2). Most participants felt confident about conducting GoCC; however, several barriers were identified. At the staff level, our results indicated inconsistent completion of GoCC and documentation due to a lack of training, confusion about roles and responsibilities, and challenging communication within the VA as well as with CNH. At the organizational level, there was a lack of standardization across sites for how LST preferences were documented. At the patient level, we found key barriers related to patient and family readiness and issues finding surrogate decision makers. While COVID-19 brought end-of-life issues to the forefront, lockdowns hindered communication about the goals of care. CONCLUSION: Findings from this pre-implementation evaluation revealed multi-level barriers in conducting and documenting GoCCs with Veterans receiving VA-paid CNH care, as well as several facilitators that can be used to inform strategies for improvement.

Quality of End-of-Life Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic at a Comprehensive Cancer Center.

To evaluate how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the quality of end-of-life care for patients with advanced cancer, we compared a random sample of 250 inpatient deaths from 1 April 2019, to 31 July 2019, with 250 consecutive inpatient deaths from 1 April 2020, to 31 July 2020, at a comprehensive cancer center. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, the timing of palliative care referral, timing of do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders, location of death, and pre-admission out-of-hospital DNR documentation were included. During the COVID-19 pandemic, DNR orders occurred earlier (2.9 vs. 1.7 days before death, p = 0.028), and palliative care referrals also occurred earlier (3.5 vs. 2.5 days before death, p = 0.041). During the pandemic, 36% of inpatient deaths occurred in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and 36% in the Palliative Care Unit, compared to 48 and 29%, respectively, before the pandemic (p = 0.001). Earlier DNR orders, earlier palliative care referrals, and fewer ICU deaths suggest an improvement in the quality of end-of-life care in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These encouraging findings may have future implications for maintaining quality end-of-life care post-pandemic.

Palliative care during the COVID-19 pandemic: Opportunities for growth in the face of loss and isolation

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread infection and death throughout the world, impacting the work and role of palliative social workers. Nineteen palliative care specialists from around the world, including 15 palliative social workers, were interviewed about their experiences during the pandemic and themes, including inequity, grief and bereavement, end-of-life care in the midst of a pandemic, the impact of crises on palliative social work, and public health approaches to palliative care emerged. This chapter presents narratives that highlight the resilience, vulnerability, and innovative approaches of palliative social work colleagues around the world. It shares the narratives of palliative care clinicians from all over the world who could speak about the experiences of providing care in the midst of a pandemic. One of the core principles of social work practice is to understand the person-in-environment. Social work is steeped in a history of advocacy and social justice. The pandemic has shined a light on the grave inequities that exist around the globe, including food instability, human rights violations, inequitable access to quality health and end-of-life care, and inadequate housing. Transformation and growth may emerge from the experiences of loss and trauma. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Family caregivers in palliative care: Social work roles and responsibilities

This chapter highlights the key concepts in palliative social work, including caregiver assessment that addresses roles, tasks, coping, unmet needs, and caregiver support along the continuum of illness, including the COVID-19 pandemic. It outlines the key social work skills, with a view toward strengthening and expanding the role for social workers with caregivers. The National Consensus Project's Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care describe core concepts, structures, and processes necessary for quality palliative care, including eight domains of practice. It is generally best to conduct the caregiver assessment as early as possible so caregiver concerns can be communicated with the entire palliative care team and integrated into the plan of care. A comprehensive caregiver assessment provides a useful roadmap for identifying the role of culture in the beliefs, values, and everyday life of patients and caregivers. The Advanced Palliative Hospice Social Worker Certification, established social work fellowships, and the competency-based training for Educating Social Workers in Palliative and End-of-Life Care hold the promise of creating a stronger palliative social work educational framework/foundation similar to that of other disciplines. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Familial responses to death in veterans affairs medical centers: Losing control and holding on

Purpose: To explore how families respond to the death and dying of their loved ones in a hospital setting, archival research was conducted using eight qualitative articles describing next-of-kins' perceptions of end-of-life care in Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMCs). The articles were based on the qualitative arm of the VA Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) study entitled, "Best Practices for End-of-life Care and Comfort Care Order Sets for our Nation's Veterans" (BEACON). Design: The archival research consisted of an interactive methodological process of data immersion, analysis, and interpretation which resulted in the emergence of two overarching thematic frameworks called "losing control" and "holding on." Findings: "Losing control" is the process that occurs when the patient experiences a cascading sequence of deleterious biological events and situations rendering the caregiver no longer able to direct the timing or setting of the dying trajectory. The notion of "holding on" captures family member's responses to the need to maintain control after relinquishing the patient's care to the institutional setting. During the patient's hospitalization, the dual dynamics of "losing control" and "holding on" unfolded in the spatial, temporal, and life narrative domains. Originality: The findings not only contribute to better overall understanding of family members' responses to death in the pre-COVID-19 hospital setting but also heighten the awareness of the complex spatial, temporal, and narrative issues faced by family members who lost a hospitalized loved one during the COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Impact of COVID-19 on care at the end of life during the first months of the pandemic from the perspective of healthcare professionals from different settings: a qualitative interview study (the CO-LIVE study).

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to better understand how the COVID-19 outbreak impacted the different domains of the palliative care approach to end-of-life care from the perspective of healthcare professionals (HCPs) from different professions, working in different settings during the first months of the COVID-19 outbreak in the Netherlands. METHODS: An in-depth qualitative interview study among 16 HCPs of patients who died between March and July 2020 in different healthcare settings in the Netherlands. The HCPs were recruited through an online survey about end-of-life care. Maximum variation sampling was used. Data were analysed following the principles of thematic analysis. RESULTS: Several aspects impacted the quality of the palliative care approach to care at the end of life. First, COVID-19 was a new disease and this led to challenges in the physical domain of end-of-life care, for example, a lack of knowledge on how to manage symptoms and an unreliable clinical view. Second, the high workload HCPs experienced impacted the quality of end-of-life care, especially in the emotional, social and spiritual domains, since they only had time for urgent, physical care. Third, COVID-19 is a contagious disease and measures taken to prevent the spread of the virus hampered care for both patients and relatives. For example, because of the visiting restrictions, HCPs were not able to provide emotional support to relatives. Finally, the COVID-19 outbreak also had a potentially positive impact in the longer term, for example, more awareness of advance care planning and the importance of end-of-life care that includes all the domains. CONCLUSION: The palliative care approach, which is key to good end-of-life care, was often negatively influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, predominantly in the emotional, social and spiritual domains. This was related to a focus on essential physical care and prevention of the spread of COVID-19.

Nursing students' experiences with patient death and palliative and end-of-life care: A systematic review and meta-synthesis.

AIM: To synthesise the experiences of nursing students encountering patient death and caring for patients under palliative care or at end-of-life and their families in clinical settings BACKGROUND: Nurses are pivotal in caring for dying patients and families. It has been reported that nursing students feel unprepared in caring for dying patients and handling patient death. Understanding their experiences would better inform how palliative care education can be improved and how students can be better supported in clinical settings. DESIGN: A qualitative systematic review and meta-synthesis METHODS: PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ProQuest and Google Scholar were searched for peer-reviewed articles and theses/dissertations published between 1 January 2012-25 Feb 2023. Qualitative studies of any design reporting nursing students' experiences of patient death, caring for patients under palliative care, at end-of-life, or with time-limiting diseases in clinical settings in English were included. Study quality was evaluated using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool. Data were synthesised using Sandelowski and Barroso's 2-step framework through a meta-summary using thematic analysis, which were then integrated into meta-syntheses using an event timeline. RESULTS: The review included 71 studies from 26 countries (n = 1586 nursing students). The meta-summary contained 8 themes and 23 subthemes: (1) Communication experience with patients and families, (2) Satisfaction with care provided to patients and families, (3) Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on death and dying, (4) Perceptions of death and dying, (5) Impact of death, (6) Nursing education on palliative end-of-life care, (7) Support systems and coping methods, (8) Learning outcomes. The meta-synthesis depicted nursing students' experiences before, during and after encountering dying patients, families and patient death. Suggestions for nursing faculty and clinical staff on how they could equip students with necessary skills and knowledge and support them in clinical settings were also provided. CONCLUSIONS: While caring for dying patients and families was beneficial to nursing students' learning and professional development, they encountered many challenges. Governments, clinical and academic nursing leaders must prioritise the integration of palliative care content into the curricula across nursing schools in face of increasing palliative and end-of-life care needs in patients. Nursing schools should ensure that students are adequately prepared by designing culturally and socioeconomically relevant curricula, integrating theoretical and experiential learning and offering students a thorough understanding of palliative and end-of-life care. Clinical staff and nursing instructors should support students emotionally and guide them in patient care.

Adaptation and multicentre validation of a patient-centred outcome scale for people severely ill with COVID (IPOS-COV).

BACKGROUND: Patient-centred measures to capture symptoms and concerns have rarely been reported in severe COVID. We adapted and tested the measurement properties of the proxy version of the Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale-IPOS-COV for severe COVID using psychometric approach. METHODS: We consulted experts and followed consensus-based standards for the selection of health status measurement instruments and United States Food and Drug Administration guidance for adaptation and analysis. Exploratory Factor Analysis and clinical perspective informed subscales. We tested the internal consistency reliability, calculated item total correlations, examined re-test reliability in stable patients, and also evaluated inter-rater reproducibility. We examined convergent and divergent validity of IPOS-COV with the Australia-modified Karnofsky Performance Scale and evaluated known-groups validity. Ability to detect change was examined. RESULTS: In the adaptation phase, 6 new items were added, 7 items were removed from the original measure. The recall period was revised to be the last 12-24 h to capture fast deterioration in COVID. General format and response options of the original Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale were preserved. Data from 572 patients with COVID from across England and Wales seen by palliative care services were included. Four subscales were supported by the 4-factor solution explaining 53.5% of total variance. Breathlessness-Agitation and Gastro-intestinal subscales demonstrated good reliability with high to moderate (a = 0.70 and a = 0.67) internal consistency, and item-total correlations (0.62-0.21). All except the Flu subscale discriminated well between patients with differing disease severity. Inter-rater reliability was fair with ICC of 0.40 (0.3-0.5, 95% CI, n = 324). Correlations between the subscales and AKPS as predicted were weak (r = 0.13-0.26) but significant (p < 0.01). Breathlessness-Agitation and Drowsiness-Delirium subscales demonstrated good divergent validity. Patients with low oxygen saturation had higher mean Breathlessness-Agitation scores (M = 5.3) than those with normal levels (M = 3.4), t = 6.4 (186), p < 0.001. Change in Drowsiness-Delirium subscale correctly classified patients who died. CONCLUSIONS: IPOS-COV is the first patient-centred measure adapted for severe COVID to support timely management. Future studies could further evaluate its responsiveness and clinical utility with clinimetric approaches.

Symptom Management and Support in Dying Patients with Cancer and Coronavirus Disease-19-A Register-Based Study.

OBJECTIVE: Little is known to what extent access to specialist palliative care (SPC) for cancer patients dying with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) affects the occurrence of breakthrough symptoms, symptom relief, and overall care, compared to hospital deaths. Our aim was to include patients with both COVID-19 and cancer and compare those dying in hospitals with those dying in SPC with reference to the quality of end-of-life care. METHODS: Patients with both cancer and COVID-19 who died in hospitals (n = 430) and within SPC (n = 384) were identified from the Swedish Register of Palliative Care. The hospital and SPC groups were compared regarding the quality of end-of-life care, including the occurrence of 6 breakthrough symptoms during the last week in life, symptom relief, end-of-life care decisions, information, support, and human presence at death. RESULTS: Breakthrough of breathlessness was more common in the hospital patients compared to the SPC patients (61% and 39%, respectively; p < .001), while pain was less common (65% and 78%, respectively; p < .001). Breakthrough of nausea, anxiety, respiratory secretions, or confusion did not differ. All 6 symptoms, except for confusion, were more often completely relieved in SPC (p = .014 to p < .001 in different comparisons). In SPC, a documented decision about the goal being end-of-life care and information about this were more common than in hospitals (p < .001). Also, to have family members present at the time of death and for family members to be offered a follow-up talk afterward was more common in SPC (p < .001). CONCLUSION: More systematic palliative care routines may be an important factor for better symptom control and higher quality of end-of-life care in hospitals.

National and international non-therapeutic recommendations for adult palliative and end-of-life care in times of pandemics: A scoping review.

OBJECTIVE: The care of seriously ill and dying people is an important task, especially in times of pandemics and regardless of the patients' infection status. Before the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, healthcare systems were not sufficiently prepared for the challenges of palliative and end-of-life care during a pandemic. The aim was to identify and synthesize relevant aspects and non-therapeutic recommendations of palliative and end-of-life care of seriously ill and dying people, infected and uninfected, and their relatives after one year into the pandemic to outline what actions, practices, and procedures were taken to deal with the pandemic and its consequences. METHOD: A scoping literature review following the methods of the PRISMA-ScR. The electronic literature search was conducted in 09/2020 and updated in 02/2021 using MEDLINE (Pubmed), with no restriction of publication date and eligibility criteria. In addition, a manual search was carried out. RESULTS: A total of 280 studies met the inclusion criteria and three main aspects have emerged. The reduction of physical contact due to the risk of infection severely limited the work of palliative care professionals and solutions had to be found to maintain palliative and end-of-life care structures. This has been accompanied by strict visitor restrictions and the need to support patients, relatives, and enable contact. The third relevant aspect is the integration of specialist palliative care expertise into other clinical settings. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: This scoping review demonstrates the need for basic palliative care training for every healthcare professional. It supports the importance of developing a national strategy for palliative care in pandemic times in every country, including the digitalization of the healthcare sector to offer telecommunication/telemedicine.