Minnesota Rural Palliative Care Initiative: building palliative care capacity in rural Minnesota

Area of Science:

• Rural Health
• Palliative Care Development
• Healthcare Capacity Building

Background:

• Rural populations face significant palliative care access gaps.
• Rural communities are often underserved, despite higher proportions of elderly and chronically ill individuals.
• Limited research exists on sustainable palliative care models for rural settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility and impact of a novel palliative care program development approach in rural communities.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of the Minnesota Rural Palliative Care Initiative (MRPCI) framework.
• To identify key components for successful rural palliative care program implementation.

Main Methods:

• A 18-month study involving 10 rural Minnesota community teams.
• Utilized a three-prong framework: community capacity theory, a learning collaborative model, and National Quality Forum (NQF) Preferred Practices.
• Focused on developing action plans and implementing strategies to address community palliative care needs.

Main Results:

• The MRPCI framework proved feasible for building rural palliative care capacity.
• All 10 teams developed action plans and integrated NQF preferred practices.
• Five communities successfully established a core palliative care team during the initiative, with only one having a program initially.

Conclusions:

• Palliative care program development is crucial for rural communities.
• A successful rural palliative care program requires a combination of structure, accountability, tailored support, resources, and inter-setting networking.
• The MRPCI model demonstrates a viable approach to enhancing palliative care access in underserved rural areas.