Assessing the outcome of a palliative care educational initiative

In 1997, a biweekly, 18-month Palliative Care Seminar Series was started at Mount Sinai School of Medicine as a way to explore participants' beliefs about palliative care and to instill the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to improve care at the end of life. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of Mount Sinai's Palliative Care Seminar Series on faculty development and personal growth.

Twenty of 42 respondents were interviewed immediately after completing the Seminar Series. Subjects identified themselves as physicians (n = 16) or nurses (n = 4). The same open-ended questions and follow-up probes were asked of each interviewee and transcripts were coded for confidentiality. The questions were developed to examine the impact of the Seminar Series on practitioners' knowledge of and attitude toward end-of-life care. Content analysis of the coded transcripts was performed by a group consisting of one physician, one medical student, and two social scientists.

Content analysis of interview transcripts revealed five common themes: subjects perceived a gain in palliative care knowledge and skills; they believed themselves to be more confident in the practice of palliative care; they believed themselves to be more confident that what they were doing is appropriate; and they felt less isolated in their beliefs as a result of regular interactions with supportive peers.

Five common themes arose from the transcripts of both physicians and nurses: participants perceived a gain in palliative care "practice" skills, participants perceived a gain in palliative care "process" skills, participants believed themselves to be more confident that palliative care was appropriate care for dying patients, participants believed themselves to be more confident in their ability to practice and teach palliative care, and participants felt less isolated in their beliefs through regular interactions with supportive peers.