How do members of an interprofessional clinical team adjust to hospice care?

Abstract

A study was carried out involving interviewing and facilitating a workshop for members of an interprofessional hospice team: nurses, doctors, a physiotherapist, a chaplain and a counsellor. Its aim was to explore how the members adjusted to working with people who are dying and people who are bereaved and whether a developmental model of adjustment from American hospital social work practice could be applied to British interprofessional hospice care. It was found that all participants experienced adjustment to hospice care as a continuous rather than a developmental process with an end point.