How do they view us? Oncology providers’ perceptions of early/concurrent palliative care.

Abstract

114 Background: Early integration of palliative care has been increasingly recognized as an important component in the care of cancer patients, including during active anticancer treatment. Yet, palliative and supportive care interventions remain to be well integrated into standard oncology practice. We sought to develop an original survey instrument in order to describe oncology providers’ perceptions of palliative care, particularly when introduced in the early and concurrent setting. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of literature pertaining to perceptions of palliative care and barriers to referral, and extracted survey items where they were found. This pool of questions was narrowed to focus on early/concurrent palliative care, and supplemented with original items. The draft survey was then systematically validated using a standardized scoring system and content-validity approach. Results: Twenty-two studies were reviewed. From an initial pool of fifty items, twenty-nine were selected for the draft survey. The draft was then reviewed by ten oncology providers, who scored each item and provided comments. Conclusions: We have produced a fully validated survey instrument that will be used to characterize oncology providers’ perceptions of early and concurrent palliative care interventions. The validated survey will be administered to oncology clinicians (including nurses, social workers and chaplains) at four academic medical centers at which an early palliative care intervention is currently being implemented. We hope to assess perceptions before and after implementation of the early palliative care intervention.