Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Delivering Specialty-Aligned Palliative Care

Area of Science:

• Palliative Care
• Interprofessional Healthcare
• Oncology Supportive Care

Background:

• Palliative care (PC) models are evolving to address comprehensive patient suffering across various illnesses and settings.
• Integrating PC with specialty medical teams requires PC clinicians to possess advanced disease-specific knowledge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide practical recommendations for developing and implementing effective specialty-aligned palliative care (SAPC) services.
• To share insights from interprofessional PC and specialist clinicians on optimizing SAPC delivery.

Main Methods:

• The article synthesizes experiences and knowledge from US-based interprofessional PC and specialist clinicians.
• Recommendations are based on the development and study of SAPC services across diverse disease groups.

Main Results:

• Key recommendations include approaching partnerships with humility and diplomacy, focusing on high-need patient populations, and clarifying role divisions.
• Suggestions emphasize using consults for bidirectional learning, adapting workflows, and managing expectations.

Conclusions:

• Effective SAPC necessitates PC clinicians acquiring in-depth knowledge of specific patient conditions, prognoses, and treatments.
• Building trusting relationships and maintaining open communication are crucial for integrated and aligned PC delivery.