title: Interprofessional team building in the palliative home care setting: Use of a conceptual framework to inform a pilot evaluation.
abstract: Home-based palliative care is increasingly dependent on interprofessional teams to deliver collaborative care that more adequately meets the needs of clients and families. The purpose of this pilot evaluation was to qualitatively explore the views of an interprofessional group of home care providers (occupational therapists, nurses, personal support work supervisors, community care coordinators, and a team coordinator) regarding a pilot project encouraging teamwork in interprofessional palliative home care services. We used qualitative methods, informed by an interprofessional conceptual framework, to analyse participants' accounts and provide recommendations regarding strategies for interprofessional team building in palliative home health care. Findings suggest that encouraging practitioners to share past experiences and foster common goals for palliative care are important elements of team building in interprofessional palliative care. Also, establishing a team leader who emphasises sharing power among team members and addressing the need for mutual emotional support may help to maximise interprofessional teamwork in palliative home care. These findings may be used to develop and test more comprehensive efforts to promote stronger interprofessional teamwork in palliative home health care delivery.
authors.affiliation: a Toronto Rehabilitation Institute - UHN, Research , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.|b VHA Home Health Care , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.affiliation: b VHA Home Health Care , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kearney
authors.affiliation: b VHA Home Health Care , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Glenns
authors.affiliation: b VHA Home Health Care , Toronto , Ontario , Canada.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McKay
mesh_terms: D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D036301:Qualitative Research
keywords: Health services research; interprofessional care; patient-centred practice; qualitative evaluation; team-based care