Lynnelle Friesen1, Elizabeth Andersen1. 1. Faculty of Health and Social Development, School of Nursing, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.
Abstract
AIM: To explore collaborative and interdisciplinary palliative educational strategies and corresponding outcomes for health care assistants. BACKGROUND: Health care assistants are frontline staff who provide almost all hands-on care to seniors. Health care managers are responsible to provide ongoing support and a working environment conducive to health care assistants' abilities to provide quality, safe, evidence-based care. EVALUATION: A Qualitative metasummary of collaborative and interdisciplinary teaching strategies was conducted following guidelines developed by Sandelowski et al. (). KEY ISSUES: The gold standard of palliative care is interdisciplinary delivery of care, yet education is often monodisciplinary. Furthermore, evaluation of interdisciplinary continuing education is most often subjective via self-report questionnaires. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from 16 articles representing 15 studies conducted between 2007 and 2017 were grouped thematically and summarized. Collaborative or interdisciplinary palliative interventions offer health care assistants opportunities to debrief, build their confidence, and critically reflect on the importance of psychosocial care for patients, family and colleagues. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The metasummary provides six suggestions for managers who are considering implementing a collaborative palliative educational workshop and draws attention to the need to create contextual changes that support health care assistants to enact newly acquired knowledge and skills.
AIM: To explore collaborative and interdisciplinary palliative educational strategies and corresponding outcomes for health care assistants. BACKGROUND: Health care assistants are frontline staff who provide almost all hands-on care to seniors. Health care managers are responsible to provide ongoing support and a working environment conducive to health care assistants' abilities to provide quality, safe, evidence-based care. EVALUATION: A Qualitative metasummary of collaborative and interdisciplinary teaching strategies was conducted following guidelines developed by Sandelowski et al. (). KEY ISSUES: The gold standard of palliative care is interdisciplinary delivery of care, yet education is often monodisciplinary. Furthermore, evaluation of interdisciplinary continuing education is most often subjective via self-report questionnaires. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from 16 articles representing 15 studies conducted between 2007 and 2017 were grouped thematically and summarized. Collaborative or interdisciplinary palliative interventions offer health care assistants opportunities to debrief, build their confidence, and critically reflect on the importance of psychosocial care for patients, family and colleagues. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The metasummary provides six suggestions for managers who are considering implementing a collaborative palliative educational workshop and draws attention to the need to create contextual changes that support health care assistants to enact newly acquired knowledge and skills.