The role of the palliative care mobile team nurse during the COVID-19 crisis

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on treatment teams, including the palliative care mobile team (PCMT). During the first epidemic wave, some institutions decided to deploy professionals working in these PCMT to care services to strengthen the workforce. The health executive and the head of department of the PCMT 37, in agreement with the management of the university hospital of Tours, decided to maintain the whole PCMT in their usual duty, enabling them to continue their mission, within and outside the hospital. Whilst, looking back at the period, we thought about the specific roles played by the nurses of PCMT during the COVID crisis, from February to December 2020. We managed to bring out three major axes that structured our actions: (a) an efficient compagnionship, which helped the reshuffled teams regain their professional identity and the notion of teamwork. (b) practical training around symptoms related to COVID-19 and end of life with an adjustment on representations on palliative care, with the aim of avoiding that COVID patients are all considered terminally ill (c) through mediation, a support for people working on site to get to grips with the various recommendations. Relying on our reflexive practice, on our capacity to adapt and on our experience of coping with uncertainty, we were able to be proactive and hence, play a relevant role in this sanitary crisis. (C) 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.