title: Interdisciplinary collaboration in hospice team meetings.
abstract: Hospice and palliative care teams provide interdisciplinary care to seriously-ill and terminally-ill patients and their families. Care teams are comprised of medical and non-medical disciplines and include volunteers and lay workers in healthcare. The authors explored the perception of collaboration among hospice team members and actual collaborative communication practices in team meetings. The data set consisted of videotaped team meetings, some of which included caregiver participation, and team member completion of a survey. Findings revealed that the team's reflection on process was most likely to occur in team meetings, however least likely to occur when caregivers were present. Although team members had a high perception of interdependence and flexibility of roles, this was less likely to be enacted in team meetings with and without the presence of caregivers. Caregiver participation in team meetings had a positive impact on collaborative communication and the potential benefit of caregiver inclusion in team meetings is explored.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Studies, University of North Texas, PO Box 305268, Denton, TX 76203-5268, USA. lyles@unt.edu
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wittenberg-Lyles
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Parker Oliver
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Demiris
authors.forename: Kelly
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Regehr
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006126:Group Processes; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D017051:Hospice Care; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015146:Midwestern United States; D010348:Patient Care Team; D013727:Terminal Care