Palliative care in rural, remote, and northern communities: a scoping review

To review and analyze existing literature on palliative care in rural, remote, and Northern communities and consider the gaps that remain in research in order to guide the direction of the current project. Like other areas of healthcare, persons living in rural, remote, and Northern regions face unique barriers when accessing palliative care in their communities. This scoping review provides an analysis of the current literature addressing palliative care in rural, remote and Northern regions globally and identifies themes in existing literature to determine areas of need for future research. Primary studies published in English in peer-reviewed journals between January 1, 2010 and February 2024 were identified CINAHL, ProQuest, PubMed, and OMNI. A total of 53 studies were eligible for data extraction. The existing literature identifies several common barriers and facilitators to accessing palliative care. Identified barriers include travel and cost of accessing care, policy issues, lack of communication, lack of knowledge/education. On the other hand, the identified facilitators include collaboration, advanced care planning, specialized education and training of care partners, utilization of telemedicine, and the use of volunteers. Suggestions for addressing barriers and leveraging facilitators to palliative care in rural, remote, and northern locations throughout Canada were presented. Future research should build upon this knowledge to guide positive changes towards the shared goal of equitable access to palliative care for all Canadians, regardless of where they live.