Construction of a Palliative Care Services Framework for End‐of‐Life Adult Patients at Medical Institutions: A Delphi Study

Background: Palliative care focuses on end‐of‐life patients and their family members (caregivers) to control pain and discomfort symptoms in end‐of‐life patients and provides comprehensive physical, psychological, and spiritual care to improve quality of life and help patients die comfortably, peacefully, and with dignity. This study aims to develop a scientific and comprehensive palliative care service framework based on expert consensus to provide a reference and basis for palliative care practices for end‐of‐life adult patients in medical institutions. Methods: This study designed three rounds of expert inquiry via the Delphi method, involving a total of 21 experts from diverse fields, including geriatrics, geriatric nursing, palliative care, hospice care, traditional Chinese medicine, death education, anesthesia, ethics, and psychology. Results: The final framework comprises five first‐level categories, namely, service process and requirements, symptom management, comfort care, psychological and social support, and complementary therapy, which are supported by 16 second‐level and 37 third‐level items. The expert authority coefficients (0.900–0.910) and Kendall’s W (0.330–0.489, p < 0.001) indicated high reliability and consensus. Conclusions: This study, which is based on the Delphi method, has formulated a framework for palliative care services tailored to the needs of end‐of‐life adult patients in medical institutions. The content of the developed service framework is clear and relatively comprehensive. The results of this study are conducive to promoting the development and practice of Palliative Care and Hospice in China, thereby enhancing the quality of death for end‐of‐life adult patients.