An observational study in End-of-life Care, Palliative Care and Prehospital Emergency Care, sponsored by University Hospital, Strasbourg, France. Recruiting at 1 site in France. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-26.
Sponsored by University Hospital, Strasbourg, France · Observational
Prehospital end-of-life care presents complex clinical, ethical, relational, and organizational challenges for healthcare professionals working in the Strasbourg Mobile Emergency and Resuscitation Service (SMUR). A comfort care booklet was introduced in the service in March 2025 to harmonize practices and improve the quality of palliative care delivered in the prehospital setting. However, professionals' experiences, perceptions of the booklet, its perceived impact on practice, and their needs have not yet been explored.
This qualitative descriptive study will explore the experiences, perceptions, and needs of SMUR healthcare professionals regarding prehospital end-of-life care and the implementation of the comfort care booklet. Individual semi-structured face-to-face interviews will be conducted, audio-recorded, transcribed anonymously, and analyzed using an inductive thematic approach. Approximately 12 to 20 participants will be recruited through purposive sampling, with recruitment continuing until data saturation is reached.
University Hospital, Strasbourg, France is the lead sponsor of 994 studies on the registry; 353 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Healthcare professionals currently working in the Strasbourg Mobile Emergency and Resuscitation Service at Strasbourg University Hospitals, including physicians, nurse anesthetists, registered nurses, and ambulance personnel. Participants will be purposively sampled to represent different professional roles, levels of experience, and work patterns, including exclusively SMUR activity or mixed activity. Recruitment will continue until data saturation, with an estimated sample size of 12 to 20 participants.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Data saturation regarding perceptions of prehospital end-of-life care and use of the comfort care booklet
Achievement of data saturation for the main themes emerging from qualitative interviews with SMUR healthcare professionals concerning their experiences, perceptions, needs, and use of the comfort care booklet in prehospital end-of-life care.
Time frame: From study initiation until data saturation, estimated within 6 months of data collection.
Perceived usefulness and practicality of the comfort care booklet
Diversity and recurrence of professional opinions regarding the booklet's usefulness, practicality, and integration into clinical practice.
Time frame: During the 6-month data collection period.
Reported difficulties and improvement needs in prehospital end-of-life care
Identification of difficulties encountered by different professional groups, concrete proposals for improvement, and needs for additional tools or training.
Time frame: During the 6-month data collection period.
Started Mar 2026 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Jan 2027, 10 months after the start.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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