title: Developing competencies for multidisciplinary hospice and palliative care professionals in Korea.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Competency-based assessment helps to improve performance and to standardize education programs for hospice and palliative care professionals. This paper aims to report the process and results of developing the hospice and palliative care competencies by multidisciplinary experts in Korea.
  
  
  METHODS
  The competency development task force team of Korean hospice and palliative care professionals was comprised of seven physicians, four nurses, two social workers, and two clergy. To build consensus regarding competencies, the team performed a two-round Delphi survey. The importance of competency domains was assessed by using a 5-point Likert scale. After the completion of the Delphi survey, final competency domains were decided in a consensus meeting.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The competencies were composed of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The competency domains were identified as the following: 11 domains and 16 subdomains for physicians, 11 domains for nurses, 5 domains and 15 subdomains for social workers, as well as 3 domains and 5 subdomains for spiritual care providers. The high importance domains were different by specialties. Physical care and treatment for physicians, symptom management for nurses, bereavement care for social workers, and communication for spiritual care providers were ranked as highly important. For nurses and spiritual care providers, attitude-related domains were ranked the highest in importance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The competencies developed by multidisciplinary professionals are useful to identify the appropriate roles of each hospice and palliative care specialist involved in a team approach to patient care.
authors.affiliation: Hospice & Palliative Care Branch, National Cancer Center, 323 Ilsan-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 410-769, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jina
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Yeol
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yang Suk
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Jin Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Su Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.forename: Hyun Jung
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Jho
authors.forename: Youn Seon
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Jeanno
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Do Ho
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: Do Yeun
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: Won Chul
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Seung Hee
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Seung Joo
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Sang Ok
authors.initials: SO
authors.lastname: Choe
authors.forename: Desiree
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D003162:Competency-Based Education / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D003697:Delphi Technique; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D004511:Education, Nursing, Graduate; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000592:standards*; D006738:Hospices; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D009726:Nurses; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000592:standards*; D010820:Physicians; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012947:Social Work / Q000193:education