2020 International Francophone Scientific Day

End of life and palliative care during a pandemic

The pandemic has disrupted healthcare systems in many countries. While media coverage has provided a daily picture of intensive care units and the difficulties faced by at-risk populations, we have rarely heard about the central importance of providing quality palliative and end-of-life care during this pandemic. Indeed, reliance on community organizations that often operate thanks to older volunteers, disruptions to grieving processes and funeral rites, great difficulty in obtaining respite for families and caregivers, as well as the impossibility of visiting family members during their final hours of life are all realities that organizations and professionals working in the field of palliative and end-of-life care have had to face.

This virtual seminar, which brought together more than 300 participants, was an opportunity to discuss palliative and end-of-life care during the pandemic and to highlight innovations in this field. The objectives were to:

• describe and understand practices as they occurred during this pandemic
• present important new advances in research on palliative and end-of-life care and the COVID-19 health crisis
• present innovative practices focused on patients, families, and healthcare professionals during the pandemic
• identify challenges in integrating knowledge into care settings and explore opportunities to overcome them
• determine future research directions on the topic

French and Quebec speakers alternated in delivering lectures, the content of which can be found below.