Report survey results

Task 1.3 On-line international survey for the collection of existing local guidelines for palliative sedation, regulations and equipments and to study the use and level of integration in health care practice in the participant countries (M6-18) To understand the levels of integration of pallliative sedation on healthcare the project will develop an internacional survey. The experience of University of Navarra developing mapping studies through experts will be useful here. The survey will be addressed to experts clinicians and key persons indentified by the group in each participating country. The survey will request most used guidelines, applicable regulations and equipment available for performing palliative sedation in each country (medication, devices for drugs administration, etc.). The survey will be done in English but requested documentation will be in any language including grey literature. Partner Bonn (Lukas Radbruch), who will lead the work package of the EAPC framework on sedation, will be coordinating the analysis of local guidelines with a researcher within each partner group, building further on previous reviews like Schildmann & Schildmann (2014), and Abarshi et al. (2017). The analysis will include definitions and terminology, the evidence of the recommendations, and the overall quality evaluation according to the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II instrument (AGREE II). The survey will also include the exploration of the process of implementation, extended use and updating, and also will include questions on barriers and opportunities for the extended use of guidelines in the country and on the existing regulations and equipment. All the information will be described and compared. The analysis of regulation and equipment will be done in collaboration with the group of Pecs University. The overview of local guidelines with the experiences learned in participating countries will serve as an input for the intended update of previous international recommendations on palliative sedation in a later workpackage lead by partner Bonn. The results of the international survey will be presented as a scientific report with comparative analysis using perspectives and methods of health geography.