Effective Collaborative Communication in Hospice Care

Ami Bhatt

doi:10.15226/2374-8362/2/1/00116

Abstract

Interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork are necessary components for collaborative communication to occur between team members in a hospice admissions setting. Team interactions require trust, confidence and an equal effort by all team members. Effective communication can be achieved through collaborative communication between team members in Interdisciplinary Team (IDT) meetings and research has been done to support this concept. However, there is a dearth of research regarding overall collaborative communication in teams and specifically data examining communication in admission teams between clinical and non-clinical team members is limited. The study tested a survey instrument that will be piloted for future research efforts to evaluate the collaborative communication between the clinical and nonclinical team members in the hospice admissions setting. Interdisciplinary collaboration in a hospice and palliative care setting is influenced by effective communication.

Highlights

Communication can be both verbal and nonverbal with subtypes that can include positive and negative communication, open and closed communication as well as effective and ineffective communication
Hospice has been defined by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) as “hospice care involves a teamoriented approach to expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support expressly tailored to the patient’s needs and wishes
It is of value to note that all members of the admission team indicated that their perception was they were well informed about the plans and progress of the agency

Summary

Introduction

Communication can be both verbal and nonverbal with subtypes that can include positive and negative communication, open and closed communication as well as effective and ineffective communication. Communication has to be beneficial to all members of the team and should allow team members to use it effectively and successful. There is limited data regarding effective collaborative communication between clinical and non-clinical team members in (a) hospice admissions settings. The purpose of the study was to explore communication between clinical and non-clinical team members in a hospice (home) care setting and the admissions department. The survey was a test survey instrument that was being developed for future research on the collaborative communication between the clinical and nonclinical team members in the hospice admissions setting. The initial efforts undertaken as a preliminary step of the broader objective to learn more about communication between clinical and non-clinical communication of hospice admission teams, focused on instrument development, pilot testing of the instrument tool and analysis of the reliability of the instrument

Objectives

Results

Conclusion