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Supportive Care in Cancer
Published in: Supportive Care in Cancer 11/2005

01-11-2005 | Original Article

Requests from professional care providers for consultation with palliative care consultation teams

Authors: Marieke M. Groot, Myrra J. F. J. Vernooij-Dassen, Annemie M. Courtens, Annemieke Kuin, Barbara A. van der Linden, Lia van Zuylen, Ben J. P. Crul, Richard P. T. M. Grol

Published in: Supportive Care in Cancer | Issue 11/2005

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Abstract

Goals of work

Professional care providers need a substantial basis of competence and expertise to provide appropriate palliative care. Little is known about the problems professionals experience in their palliative care provision in daily practice or about the nature of the advice and support they request from experts. Our aim was to investigate the extent to which professionals requested assistance from palliative care consultation teams and the reasons behind these requests to trace any gaps they experience in the provision of palliative care.

Methods

As part of a large national palliative care development programme, we studied requests for consultation made by professional care providers over a 2-year period. The requests for consultation were recorded on a specially developed standard registration form and classified according to 11 domains relevant to palliative care.

Main results

Professional care providers requested 4351 consultations on account of 8413 specific problems in 11 quality-of-life and quality-of-care domains. The distribution of problems over these domains was unbalanced: 42.2% of the specific problems were physical, while the percentages of psychological, pharmacological and organizational problems were 7.7, 12.5 and 12.8%, respectively. In contrast, issues of a spiritual nature or concerned with daily functioning were raised infrequently (1.1 and 0.9%). Details of the specific problems in all the domains are described in the text and tables.

Conclusions

The results of our study form a valid basis on which to develop and implement improvements in palliative care. We recommend that future well-founded policies for palliative care should incorporate palliative care consultation as well as educational and organizational interventions.
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Metadata
Title
Requests from professional care providers for consultation with palliative care consultation teams
Authors
Marieke M. Groot
Myrra J. F. J. Vernooij-Dassen
Annemie M. Courtens
Annemieke Kuin
Barbara A. van der Linden
Lia van Zuylen
Ben J. P. Crul
Richard P. T. M. Grol
Publication date
01-11-2005
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
Supportive Care in Cancer / Issue 11/2005
Print ISSN: 0941-4355
Electronic ISSN: 1433-7339
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-005-0796-5

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