Exploring palliative care nursing of patients with pre-existing serious persistent mental illness

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

In the past, palliative care has been primarily cancer focused, and more recently the scope of care has broadened to include other life-limiting illnesses.With increasing incidence of multiple comorbidities amongst palliative care patient populations, it is less certain whether access to, and treatment within, palliative care settings is adequate for those who have preexisting serious and persistent mental illnesses.This paper explores the key concepts identified in the literature to determine whether increased awareness of serious and persistent mental illnesses has translated to improved care (including nursing practice) and patient satisfaction in decision-making at the end of life.To identify key concepts in this topic, searches were performed for relevant literature using standard databases, articles were screened and 35 articles were selected, with some broader-range articles included to provide context.Although some improvements have been reported over the past 14 years, this population appears to remain underserved in palliative care.The need for more specialised education for nurses in both palliative care and mental health care, and the necessity for better communication and collaboration between the two specialities were identified.Greater collaboration between disciplines may ensure that these patients receive the same standard of care experienced by the general population.