Patients visited at home by the community palliative care support team

Patients with follow-up consultations by primary health care

This study is a prospective longitudinal research study. The sample consisted of two groups: the Intervention Group, which included patients from the community palliative care support team (ECSCP-BM), and the Control Group, with primary health care selected patients from the family health units Nautilus and Coimbra Centro (CSP), with serious illness, comorbidities, and a poor prognosis. The patients chosen from ECSCP-BM were made up only of new patients referred to the team without any prior home consultations. The first questionnaire application took place during the first visit, and the second one was administered fourteen days later. The Primary Health Care patients were selected by invitation, and the questionnaire was administered. It included sociodemographic data, clinical data, the Herth Hope Index and open questions.

During the palliative care team's home visit, spirituality was addressed in in the clinical history through the assessment of hope and acceptance.

Participants answered questions on the Hope Scale. There were 9 questions with 4 possible answers. Each answer was scored from 1 to 4. The maximum score on the scale was 36.

Participants answered three open-ended questions to assess their acceptance. These questions were asked to the control group and at the first assessment of the intervention group. At the second assessment of the intervention group, after 14 days, a fourth question was also asked, assessing the team's intervention during those 14 days.