Expanding the Interdisciplinary Palliative Medicine Workforce: A Longitudinal Education and Mentoring Program for Practicing Clinicians

Abstract

Context. The disparity between gaps in workforce and availability of palliative care (PC) services is an increasing issue in health care. To meet the demand, team-based PC requires additional educational training for all clinicians caring for persons with serious illness.Objective. To describe the educational methodology and evaluation of an existing regional, interdisciplinary PC training program that was expanded to include chaplain and social worker trainees.Methods. From 2015-2017 twenty-six social workers, chaplains, physicians, nurses and advanced practice providers representing 22 health systems completed a two-year training program.The curriculum was comprised of bi-annual interdisciplinary conferences, individualized mentoring and clinical shadowing, self-directed e-learning, and professionfocused seminar series for social workers and chaplains. Site-specific practice improvement projects were developed to address gaps in PC at participating sites.Results. Palliative care and program development skills were self-assessed pre and post training. Among 12 skills common to all disciplines, trainees reported significant increases in confidence across all 12, and significant increases in frequency of performing 11 of 12 skills.Qualitative evaluation identified a myriad of program strengths and challenges regarding the educational format, mentoring, and networking across disciplines. Conclusions.Teaching PC and program development knowledge and skills to an interdisciplinary, regional cohort of practicing clinicians yielded improvements in clinical skills, implementation of practice change projects, and a sense of belonging to a supportive professional network.

Trends in Published Palliative Care Research: A 15-Year Review

“…Secondary degrees were included for analysis for the members of the PC interdisciplinary team (physician/licensed independent practitioners [LIPs], nursing, social work, chaplain, therapy, pharmacy). 17,18…”

“…Secondary degrees were included for analysis for the members of the PC interdisciplinary team (physician/licensed independent practitioners [LIPs], nursing, social work, chaplain, therapy, pharmacy). 17,18 The primary professional degree was used for the final analysis in the following groupings: MD or equivalent ( The total number of studies for which the first authors' degree was available was 4875. All interdisciplinary degrees were represented in the first authorship except RT and SLP.…”

Sikap Perawat dalam Memberikan Asuhan Keperawatan pada Pasien Paliatif

“…Pelatihan sangat berpengaruh terhadap kepercayaan diri perawat paliatif dan kemampuan perawat dalam memberikan dukungan sosial kepada pasien (Dehghani et al, 2020). Disamping itu perlu dilakukan program pelatihan secara rutin bersama tim paliatif (O'Mahony et al, 2020). Berbagai pelatihan yang diperlukan bagi perawat paliatif antara lain manejemen gejala, asuhan keperawatan berkelanjutan, peningkatan Edy Suprayitno, Raisa Farida Kafil kualitas hidup pasien dan asuhan keperawatan sesuai kasus yang dialami pasien, metode pendidikan kesehatan kepada pasien dan keluarga, komunikasi terapeutik (Hickman et al, 2020), (Frey et al, 2019.…”

Practice Improvement Projects in an Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Training Program

“…One effort undertaken to expand the primary palliative medicine workforce is the Coleman Palliative Medicine Training Program (CPMTP). Since 2012 this longitudinal program has offered PC training to practicing clinicians by utilizing multi-modal educational strategies 13,14 .…”

“…Since 2012 this longitudinal program has offered PC training to practicing clinicians by utilizing multi-modal educational strategies. 13,14 One feature of the 2-year curriculum included application of institutional practice change in which learners received mentorship in the design, implementation, and evaluation of practice improvement projects (PIPs). We hypothesize that participation in PIPs would strengthen the engagement of participants and mentors in the program.…”