Advancing Hospice and Palliative Care Social Work Leadership in Interprofessional Education and Practice

Abstract

The importance of interprofessional collaboration in achieving high quality outcomes, improving patient quality of life, and decreasing costs has been growing significantly in health care. Palliative care has been viewed as an exemplary model of interprofessional care delivery, yet best practices in both interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional practice (IPP) in the field are still developing. So, too, is the leadership of hospice and palliative care social workers within IPE and IPP. Generating evidence regarding best practices that can prepare social work professionals for collaborative practice is essential. Lessons learned from practice experiences of social workers working in hospice and palliative care can inform educational efforts of all professionals. The emergence of interprofessional education and competencies is a development that is relevant to social work practice in this field. Opportunities for hospice and palliative social workers to demonstrate leadership in IPE and IPP are presented in this article.

Health Professionals Perceived Concerns and Challenges in Providing Palliative and End-of-Life Care: A Qualitative Analysis

“…3,5,6 The benefit of interprofessional collaboration to achieve effective patient outcomes, decreased cost of care, and enhanced patient quality-of-life has been well documented. [7][8][9][10][11][12] The World Health Organization describes a collaborative workforce as those who have received interdisciplinary training from 2 or more professions so as to improve health outcomes. 11 Collaboration is optimal when there is recognition and respect for the scope of practice and knowledge of other disciplines and their particular expertise.…”

An Interdisciplinary Framework for Palliative and Hospice Education and Practice

“…Furthermore, evidence exists that indicates that IDTs enhance care provision, reduce lengths of stay, minimize costs, and decrease medical errors (Green & Johnson, 2015). Despite guidelines and evidence presupposing interprofessional practice and education, there are barriers to developing and implementing activities (Blacker et al, 2016. ) This commitment to caring from an interdisciplinary perspective is enhanced by a framework that can be used by all members of a team to guide professional education and support excellent practice outcomes for palliative and hospice care.…”

“Sacred Work”: Reflections on the Professional and Personal Impact of an Interdisciplinary Palliative Oncology Clinical Experience by Social Work Learners

“…Learners and practitioners report feeling anxious about death and dying and unprepared for tasks related to their positions and seldom receive preparation for practice within interdisciplinary teams [7,8,12,13,14,15,16,17]. As a result, interdisciplinary curricula have been developed to increase the skills and confidence of social work learners and other health disciplines to provide palliative care and/or hospice services to patients and families [15,18,19,20].…”

“…Learners must develop skills not only to communicate and work with patients and families but also to advocate for their patients within the interdisciplinary team. Their ability to function on the team may be constrained by a history of hierarchy and turf wars [12,22]. Gaining feedback from learners about their learning experiences will help to strengthen and develop future training opportunities.…”