Exploring Team Composition in Palliative Care

By Brianna Morgan (@BriannaMorganNP) and Elise Tarbi (@EliseConant)Amidst rapid growth in the number of palliative care programs,the December 2017 issue of the Journal of Palliative Medicine calls for a pause to consider the blueprints for how we build moving forward. In the issue,Kousaie and von Gunten (2017) compare two hospitals, one that has an established advanced practice nurse only model of palliative care delivery (APN model), and a second hospital implementing an interdisciplinary team including physicians, APNs, social workers, chaplains, and pharmacists (team model) for the same purpose. Compared to the APN model, Kousaie and von Gunten report that the team model reduces length of stay and increases cost savings.At this moment, there is value in reflecting and evaluating the current practice of palliative care in order to build a better future, including the impact of the composition of palliative care delivery teams. However, we have a number of concerns with the methodological approach to this study and the conclusions drawn from its data.Of primary importance, the conclusions of this study warrant further scrutiny. In explaining the outcomes described above, the authors suggest that differences in communication styles may play a role, observing that while the APN model tended toward “indirect” interactions with consulting teams, the interdisciplinary team “directly” engaged the consulting team to alter the plan of care more frequently. However, the resea...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - Category: Palliative Care Tags: advance apn morgan nurse physician research tarbi team teamwork The profession Source Type: blogs