Home care needs of paediatric palliative patients perceived by professionals: A grounded theory

Objective: To explore the elements involved in the process of paediatric palliative home care in the Spanish context according to the opinion of professionals.Method: Qualitative study based on Grounded Theory, adjusted to COREQ standards, using theoretical sampling with in-depth interviews (June 2021 -February 2022) with paediatricians, paediatric nurses and social workers from paediatric palliative care units in Spain, excluding pro-fessionals with less than 1 year's experience. Interviews were recorded and transcribed literally for coding and categorisation through a constant comparative process of code co-occurrence until data saturation using Atlas-Ti (R). The anonymity of the informants has been guaranteed by using pseudonyms after approval by the Research Ethics Committee of the Hospital Univer-sitario de Gran Canaria Doctor Negrin (Las Palmas, Canary Islands) with registration number 2021-403-1. Results: 18 interviews were conducted and 990 quotes were grouped into 22 categories of analysis and structured into four thematic groups (care, environment, patient and family, and professionals). The findings showed a holistic view emphasising the need to organise and integrate the factors involved in the home-based approach to paediatric palliative home care.Conclusions: In our context, the home environment meets appropriate conditions for the deve-lopment of paediatric palliative care. The categories of analysis identified establish a starting point for further deepening the approach from the thematic areas involved: care, the environ-ment, the patient and family, and professionals.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).