Conceptions of the Word Palliative Care on the Field of Mobile Teams in French Medicine
In France, from the year 2000, Health Authorities chose the development of mobile teams rather than inpatient units for a better dissemination of palliative care during end-of-life care. In this context, our article analyses, from data we gathered in field studies from end 1990’s to early 2010s, the conceptions of the word palliative care by the different protagonists of care. Results show a link between these conceptions and the role occupied by these protagonists: for patients and relative, palliative care is a synonymous of death; palliative care professionals see it as a multidimensional intervention; other professionals reduce it as cure abstention. These conceptions resume what these actors do and what they think they can do in relation to their place in end-of-life care. These results reveal the initial context and some issues for palliative care during mobile teams’ institutional development in French medicine.