Cooperating with a palliative home-care team: expectations and evaluations of GPs and district nurses.
BACKGROUND
Palliative home-care teams often cooperate with general practitioners (GPs) and district nurses. Our aim was to evaluate a palliative home-care team from the viewpoint of GPs and district nurses.


METHODS
GPs and district nurses received questionnaires at the start of home-care and one month later. Questions focussed on benefits to patients, training issues for professionals and cooperation between the home-care team and the GP/ district nurse. A combination of closed- and open-ended questions was used.


RESULTS
Response rate was 84% (467/553). Benefits to patients were experienced by 91 %, mainly due to improvement in symptom management, 'security', and accessibility of specialists in palliative care. After one month, 57% of the participants reported to have learnt aspects of palliative care, primarily symptom control, and 89% of them found cooperation satisfactory. Dissatisfaction was caused mainly by lack of information from the home-care team to primary-care professionals.


CONCLUSIONS
GPs and district nurses welcomed the palliative home-care team and most experienced benefits to patients. Strengthened communication, initiated by the home-care team would enhance cooperation.
Goldschmidt
Dorthe
D
Department of Palliative Medicine, Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen. dg02@bbh.hosp.dk
Groenvold
Mogens
M
Johnsen
Anna Thit
AT
Strömgren
Annette S
AS
Krasnik
Allan
A
Schmidt
Lone
L
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D003718:Denmark; D005194:Family Practice / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires