Multidisciplinary team meetings: dynamic routines that (re)make palliative care

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Sociology of Health and Illness
• Palliative Care Research

Background:

• Multidisciplinary team meetings are integral to daily operations for palliative care professionals.
• Existing structures for these meetings often follow a prescribed format for reviewing patient data and monitoring service performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine palliative care team meetings as dynamic social practices.
• To understand how these routines reflect and shape the concerns and values of palliative care teams.

Main Methods:

• Ethnographic research was conducted with community and hospital-based palliative care teams in England.
• Observations focused on the content, conduct, and practical application of team meetings.

Main Results:

• Team meetings, despite a formal structure, exhibited fluid content and conduct, adapting to team concerns.
• Staff navigated tensions between standardized documentation and the perceived core aspects of their roles.
• Meetings facilitated collective decision-making regarding patient care, value enactment, and professional wellbeing.

Conclusions:

• Palliative care team meetings function as dynamic social practices, not just formal routines.
• These meetings are crucial for teams to collectively question and redefine the essence of palliative care.
• The observed practices highlight the continuous negotiation of what truly matters in palliative care delivery.