Integration of Palliative Care in Acute Care Hospitals: A Multicenter Survey Study on the Organization of Palliative Care Teams and Their Collaboration With Ward Staff
Louana Moons, Mieke Deschodt, Peter Pype, Eva Oldenburger, Inge Bossuyt, Fouke Ombelet, Maaike L. De RooBackground
The need for palliative care is increasing due to population aging and rising prevalence of chronic illness. Although hospital-based palliative care is typically delivered through a generalist–specialist model, limited evidence exists on how organizational characteristics of palliative care teams (PCTs) shape interprofessional collaboration with ward staff.
Aim
To describe the organizational characteristics of hospital-based PCTs and examine perceptions of interprofessional collaboration from both PCT and ward staff perspectives, including an exploratory descriptive comparison between PCT characteristics and ward staff satisfaction.
Design
Multicenter cross-sectional survey.
Setting/participants
Acute care hospitals in Flanders, Belgium. Data were collected from 43 PCTs and 714 ward staff members.
Results
All PCTs included nurses, most included physicians and psychologists, with variable involvement of social workers and spiritual caregivers. Consultations most commonly focused on end-of-life decision-making and advance care planning. Interprofessional collaboration was perceived positively by both groups. Workload and time constraints among ward staff remained important barriers. PCTs predominantly fulfilled advisory and coaching roles, which were also preferred by ward staff.
Conclusion
Effective interprofessional collaboration in hospital palliative care is highly valued by both PCTs and ward staff. Advisory and coaching-oriented consultation approaches were common and generally well accepted in practice. Further research is needed to determine how organizational characteristics and consultation practices influence collaboration and support generalist palliative care within acute hospital settings.