Table 1.
Extraction of data from included studies.
| Source, Country and Quality | Aim | Design and Method | Setting | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Author: Beckstrand et al., 2008 Country: USA Weak quality * [21] |
To determine a magnitude score for both obstacles and supportive behaviours surrounding EOL care in emergency departments. |
Cross-sectional using a validated questionnaire | Emergency department, Multisite |
272 emergency nurses. |
| Author: Beckstrand et al., 2012 Country: USA Weak quality * [19] |
To determine the impact of ED design on EOL care as perceived by emergency nurses and to determine how much input emergency nurses have on the design of their emergency department. | Cross-sectional using a developed questionnaire | Emergency department, Multisite |
198 emergency nurses. |
| Author: Beckstrand et al. 2012. Country: USA Weak quality * [3] |
To discover the size, frequency, and magnitude of obstacles in providing EOL care in rural emergency departments as perceived by rural emergency nurses. | Cross-sectional survey research design | Emergency department in rural area. Multisite |
236 emergency nurses |
| Author: Wolf et al., 2015. Country: USA Weak quality * [28] |
To explore emergency nurses’ perceptions of challenges and facilitators in the care of patients at the EOL. | A mixed-methods design | Emergency department, Multisite |
Survey data (N = 1879) Focus group data (N = 17) |
| Author: Beckstrand et al., 2017 Country: USA Weak quality * [20] |
To explore the first-person experiences or stories of rural emergency nurses who have cared for dying patients and the obstacles these nurses encountered while attempting to provide EOL care. | Cross-sectional survey | Emergency department, Multisite |
246 Emergency nurses. |
| Author: Hogan et al., 2016 Country: Canada High quality * [22] |
To describe the experience of emergency nurses who provide care for adult patients who die in the emergency department to better understand the factors that facilitate care or challenge nurses as they care for these patients and their grieving families. | Qualitative design (Semi-structured interviews) | Two EDs of a multisite university teaching hospital | 11 Emergency nurses. |
| Author: Granero-Molina et al., 2016 Country: Spain High quality * [25] |
To explore and describe the experiences of physicians and nurses with regard to loss of dignity in relation to end-of-life care in the emergency department. | Qualitative design (Phenomenological study) | Two EDs of public hospitals, multisite |
26 emergency staff (10 physicians and 16 nurses) |
| Author: Tse, Hung and Pang, 2016 Country: Hong Kong Weak quality * [18] |
To understand emergency nurses’ perceptions regarding the provision of EOLC in the ED. | Qualitative study. (Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews) |
Emergency Department | 16 Emergency Nurses. |
| Author: Bailey, Murphy and Porock, 2011 Country: UK High quality * [27] |
To explore end-of-life care in the ED and provide an understanding of how care is delivered to the dying, deceased and bereaved in the emergency setting. | Qualitative study (Observation and interviews) |
ED in an urban academic teaching hospital | Emergency nurses (11), physicians (2), and technicians (2) (7) Patients who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. (7) relatives, who had accompanied the patients during the emergency admission |
| Author: Fassier, Valour, Colin and Danet, 2016 Country: France High quality * [23] |
To explored physicians’ perceptions of and attitudes toward triage and end-of-life decisions for elderly critically ill patients at the emergency department –ICU interface |
Qualitative study (semi-structured interviews) | EDs in Hospitals, multisite | 15 Emergency physicians |
| Author: Stone et al., 2011 Country: USA High quality * [26] |
To describe emergency physicians’ perspectives on the challenges and benefits to providing palliative care in an academic, urban, public hospital in Los Angeles |
Qualitative study (semi- structured interviews) | ED in a large, public, urban academic medical centre | 38 Emergency Medicine Physicians |
| Author: Kongsuwan et al., 2016 Country: Thailand High quality * [29] |
To describe the meaning of nurses’ lived experience of caring for critical and dying patients in the emergency rooms. | Qualitative Study using phenomenological approach (in-depth interviews) |
EDs in hospitals, multisite |
12 emergency nurses. |
| Author: Richardson et al., 2016 Country: Australia High quality * [30] |
To investigate and describe any differences in the importance of the considerations and discussions that took place when EP and ER made a decision to withdraw and/or withhold life-sustaining healthcare in the ED. | Sub-study of a prospective cross-sectional questionnaire-based case series | In six metropolitan EDs, multisite | 185 Emergency consultants, 135 emergency training registrars and 320 EOL patients |
| Author: Shearer, Rogers, Monterosso, Ross-Adjie and Rogers, 2014 Country: Australia Weak quality * [24] |
To investigate Australian ED staff perspectives and needs regarding palliative care provision and to assess staff views about death and dying, and their awareness of common causes of death in Australia, particularly those where a palliative care approach is appropriate. | Qualitative and quantitative survey (The survey tool uses a combination of Likert-type scales and open-ended questions) |
In a private ED | 22 physicians and 44 nurses |
Legend: EOL; end of life, EOLC: end of life care; ED: emergency department; RN: registered nurse; ER: emergency registrar; EP: emergency physician. * Please see Tables S2 and S3 for quality assessment.