Weathering the Storm: Adapting in Palliative Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The provision of palliative care has been seen to have a significant impact on the interprofessional health care team. Being emotionally present to support patients and families at their most stressful points in life can result in compassion satisfaction or compassion fatigue. Providing palliative care through the COVID-19 pandemic added another layer of complexity to this professional caregiving experience. Although efforts have been made by employers to support health care providers in the practices of self-care and mindfulness, the true experience of care providers was not known. This study was conducted from June 2020 to October 2020 to better understand the experiences of physicians, nurses, social workers, and spiritual care providers who were providing palliative care during the first wave of the pandemic. Twenty-five participants completed the Professional Quality of Life (The Concise ProQOL Manual: The Concise Manual for the Professional Quality of Life Scale) measure and open-ended questions to evaluate their experiences as health care providers. The findings resulted in an overarching theme of "Weathering the Storm" with 6 themes describing the experiences of the interprofessional team.