ALT Screenshot of blog titled "Does palliative care have a problem with…'the c-word'?" with take home messages: (1) Hospice staff are still struggling with the emotional implications of working through the emergency period and foreground ways of getting back to pre-2020 “normal”, but also recognise there is a ‘new normal’ that includes COVID affecting patients’ amount and quality of life left, which can get pushed to the background. (2) This tension reflects the wider “living with COVID” approach in healthcare, which assumes people have time and capacity to recover from infections. (3) The uncertainty staff expressed suggests that hospice palliative care needs to engage in more explicit reflection on what ways of mitigating COVID-19 best fulfil a core value of promoting quality of life left.

ALT Screenshot with highlighted quote from NIAID’s Jeanne Marrazzo, "But I thought to myself, it’s more that people just want to live a normal life. We really don’t want to go back. It was so painful. We’re still all traumatized."

ALT Screenshot of paper title and abstract: “Backlash!”? A qualitative exploration of hospice palliative care staff’s ongoing experiences of “living with covid”

ALT Paper title and authors: MacArtney, J.I., Eccles, E., Fleming, J., Grimley, C., Dale, J., Almack, K., Mayland, C., Mitchel, S., Driscoll, R., Hammond, R., Tatnell, L., Roberts, L. (2024) Pandemic narratives in stories about hospice palliative care: The impact of Covid-19 upon ideals of timely, holistic care and quality of life. SSM - Qualitative Research in Health

ALT Abstract: Findings: We identified four ‘pandemic narratives’ (reaction; revision; resilience; (re)normalisation) in the participants’ accounts of hospice palliative care support in the first two years of the pandemic. In each narrative we explore how Covid-19 and the associated pandemic guidance affected what quality of life was understood to be; how what was considered to be timely care could change during the palliative care journey; and, how different ideas of holistic care were emphasised as the hospice and wider healthcare context changed. Conclusion: This is the first-time stories about the first two-years of the Covid-19 pandemic from hospice patients, carers, staff and senior managers have been analysed together. We identified how the pandemic brought an existential challenge to ideas of what hospice palliative care is and could be. Our findings suggest that ‘living with covid’ will continue to affect hospice palliative care’s ideals.

ALT Screenshot of conference abstract titled, "Narrating Crisis in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences of Patients, Carers, Staff and Senior Managers of Hospice Palliative Care in the UK"

ALT Poster advertising Marie Curie conference. Text reads: "The Marie Curie Conference 2024. A Spotlight on: Addressing support needs of staff, Monday 5 February 2024, 3pm to 4pm. Chaired by: Dr John MacArtney, Marie Curie and University of Warwick".

ALT Poster advertising Marie Curie conference. Text reads: "The Marie Curie Conference 2024. A Spotlight on: Addressing support needs of staff, Monday 5 February 2024, 3pm to 4pm. Chaired by: Dr John MacArtney, Marie Curie and University of Warwick".

ALT Image of report cover titled: "The perceived value of bereavement support and the impact of inequalities on availability and access: Accessing bereavement support". Link in tweet

ALT Screenshot of text that says, "How this fits in: GPs face increasing palliative care workloads in the UK owing to an ageing population. Previous literature has identified specific barriers that GPs face in palliative care provision such as symptom management or engaging with specialist services. However, to the authors’ knowledge, there is an absence of synthesised literature exploring the challenges that GPs face when providing palliative care from a holistic perspective. This systematic review finds that a lack of resources, fragmented MDT approach, and training deficiencies all impact on GPs’ ability to provide palliative care. It is important to address these issues to support GPs to provide palliative care, and consideration of these factors may be beneficial during future service planning."