title: German community pastors' contact with palliative care patients and collaboration with health care professionals.
abstract: The current level of palliative care in Germany is unsatisfactory. Health care professionals view the psychosocial support of patients and families and the collaboration amongst the different care providers as the main deficiencies. In this context little is known about the viewpoints of community pastors who might have an important role in providing psychosocial and spiritual care for patients at home. In order to study their perspectives we performed 76 standardized telephone interviews with Protestant and Catholic pastors and examined how much contact pastors had with palliative care patients; their views of the collaboration with health care professionals; and how the pastors assessed their own skills in palliative care. Forty-one percent of respondents had no contact with any palliative care patients. The majority perceived collaboration with family doctors to be insufficient. The pastors assessed their own skills concerning palliative care predominantly as "satisfactory". Our findings suggest that community pastors' participation in the delivery of palliative care in Germany might be encouraged by specialized training and intensified contact with health care professionals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Social Medicine & Health System Research, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Buser
authors.forename: Volker E
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Amelung
authors.forename: Nils
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schneider
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002835:Christianity; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000523:psychology; D010327:Pastoral Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010361:Patients; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012737:Sex Factors; D012944:Social Support; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000458:organization & administration*