International News: Italy
The Bioethics and Palliative Care unit of the University of Florence, an Italian public oncological research hospital, led the multi-partner research of customized Italian GoWish cards. The research was published in 2022 in the “Journal of Palliative Medicine.” Findings revealed patient participants welcomed the cards because they helped clarify their values and personal thoughts. The research published in 2022 in the Journal of Palliative Medicine is a role model protocol for other countries. In separate testing, developed because of healthcare workers’ enormous influence on patients, the findings revealed the importance of training them to use the Italian GoWish cards as well as the patients . Results from this group emphasized that the cards helped the professionals recognize their own values and preconceptions before working with EOL patients, as well as improving their skill in initiating EOL conversations.
Final research studies from both groups noted the following top five cards chosen, in the following order, by all participants.
To be:
- Free of pain
- Free from anxiety
- Able to breathe comfortably
- Clean and tidy
- Have contact with another person (human contact)
With the extensive research project conducted by Italy it could be used as role model protocol for other countries conducting their own research.
