Abstract
Background: Primary care and nursing home teams provide palliative care. To meet the needs of patients and families, systematic symptom management supported by interdisciplinary collaboration is required.
Aims: To explore the current practice of symptom management and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey study in a convenience sample of primary care and nursing home teams. Symptom management was operationalized in 3-steps: identification, palliative reasoning and communication. Interdisciplinary collaboration was measured by the Modified Index of Interdisciplinary Collaboration (1.0 highest perception, 5.0 lowest). Descriptive statistics were used for analysis.
Results: Out of 5 district teams from 2 home care organizations, general practitioners, chaplains, paramedics, and 11 nursing home teams from 5 nursing homes 114 professionals participated: 50% nurse assistants, 22% RN, 16% paramedics, 5% physicians, 4% dieticians, 2% chaplains. The palliative phase was not marked by 27% of them; if the life expectancy of a patient was estimated 56% did not share this within the team. Most participants investigated symptoms, 32% sometimes/never explored the psychological and social dimension nor the spiritual dimension (50%). For identified symptoms, the cause was unknown for 25% of participants and 20% did not know which intervention to apply. During the start of care, half of the participants was not involved in clinical decision making, during the process involvement ameliorated. Overall, the communication with patients was perceived as good. Nursing home teams had a slightly higher perception of collaboration (2.3 vs. 2.6)
Conclusion: Although collaboration is mostly perceived as positive in primary care and nursing home teams, interdisciplinary collaboration seems not to be optimal during the identification, analysis of symptoms and decisions on interventions.
Funding: Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development
Aims: To explore the current practice of symptom management and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey study in a convenience sample of primary care and nursing home teams. Symptom management was operationalized in 3-steps: identification, palliative reasoning and communication. Interdisciplinary collaboration was measured by the Modified Index of Interdisciplinary Collaboration (1.0 highest perception, 5.0 lowest). Descriptive statistics were used for analysis.
Results: Out of 5 district teams from 2 home care organizations, general practitioners, chaplains, paramedics, and 11 nursing home teams from 5 nursing homes 114 professionals participated: 50% nurse assistants, 22% RN, 16% paramedics, 5% physicians, 4% dieticians, 2% chaplains. The palliative phase was not marked by 27% of them; if the life expectancy of a patient was estimated 56% did not share this within the team. Most participants investigated symptoms, 32% sometimes/never explored the psychological and social dimension nor the spiritual dimension (50%). For identified symptoms, the cause was unknown for 25% of participants and 20% did not know which intervention to apply. During the start of care, half of the participants was not involved in clinical decision making, during the process involvement ameliorated. Overall, the communication with patients was perceived as good. Nursing home teams had a slightly higher perception of collaboration (2.3 vs. 2.6)
Conclusion: Although collaboration is mostly perceived as positive in primary care and nursing home teams, interdisciplinary collaboration seems not to be optimal during the identification, analysis of symptoms and decisions on interventions.
Funding: Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 74 |
| Journal | Palliative Medicine |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue number | S1 |
| Early online date | 1 Sept 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2021 |
| Event | World Congress of the EAPC 2021 - Duration: 6 Oct 2021 → 8 Oct 2021 |