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WORLD ANTHROPOLOGICAL UNION

CONGRESS 2024​

Paper

Caring in Crisis: A qualitative study on the experience of home hospice workers amidst the COVID-19 pandemic

presenters

    Cyrus Yoshimoto

    Nationality: United States

    Residence: United States

    University of Miami Leonard School of Medicine

    Presence:Face to Face/ On Site

    De Ann Pendry

    Nationality: United States of America

    Residence: United States of America

    University of Tennessee-Knoxville

    Presence:Online

Keywords:

home; hospice; caregiver; elderly

Abstract:

Home hospice care is the delivery of end-of-life care services in the homes of patients as opposed to inpatient hospice facilities. With the development of the global aging population and the rising preference to die at home, the usage, demand, and need for home hospice care will only become more significant internationally moving forward. Previously, there has been a lack of research focusing on eliciting the experiences of home hospice workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, often including both inpatient hospice facilities or general palliative care services in the studies. To learn how home hospice workers were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, we carried out a qualitative study exclusively focusing on a home hospice organization in Tennessee utilizing semi-structured interviews. Interviews were enriched by the presenter's first-hand experience as a hospice volunteer. During our inductive analysis, five core themes emerged from the home hospice workers interviewed for this study: the presence of hierarchies, conflicting views on the COVID-19 vaccines, challenges with personal protective equipment, psychological challenges, and shortages. We argue that additional focus must be placed on both the pre-existing and novel challenges home hospice workers faced amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Through our research, we hope to empower professional caregivers working in the home hospice setting. By revealing the challenges these caregivers faced, we hope lessons can be learned to augment the development of end-of-life care systems, allowing elderly populations to both live and die with dignity and respect amidst public health emergencies.