General practice palliative care: Patient and carer expectations, advance care plans and place of death - A systematic review

Abstract

Background With an increasing ageing population in most countries, the role of general practitioners (GPs) and general practice nurses (GPNs) in providing optimal end of life (EoL) care is increasingly important. Objective To explore: (1) patient and carer expectations of the role of GPs and GPNs at EoL; (2) GPs' and GPNs' contribution to advance care planning (ACP) and (3) if primary care involvement allows people to die in the place of preference. Method Systematic literature review. Data sources: Papers from 2000 to 2017 were sought from Medline, Psychinfo, Embase, Joanna Briggs Institute and Cochrane databases. Results From 6209 journal articles, 51 papers were relevant. Patients and car..