An Interprofessional Approach to Advance Care Planning

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Interprofessional Education
• Palliative Care

Background:

• Advance care planning (ACP) improves end-of-life outcomes.
• Interprofessional collaboration is recommended for ACP facilitation.
• Role confusion and unclear expectations hinder interprofessional ACP.

Purpose of the Study:

• Review health professional organizations' ACP competency expectations.
• Identify gaps and opportunities for interprofessional collaboration in ACP.

Main Methods:

• Content analysis of guidelines from chaplaincy, medicine, nursing, psychology, and social work.
• Thematic review against ACP outcomes and interprofessional education competency domains.

Main Results:

• Key themes: patient advocacy, facilitation responsibility, and specific ACP tasks.
• Addressed process and action outcomes, but not quality of care or healthcare outcomes.
• Few disciplines integrated interprofessional collaboration into ACP competencies.

Conclusions:

• Standardized competency guidelines for interprofessional ACP collaboration are necessary.
• Addressing role confusion and challenges can improve ACP facilitation.
• Further practice, research, and policy efforts are needed to enhance interprofessional ACP and patient outcomes.