Intentionally Interprofessional Palliative Care: Synergy in Education and Practice

Strong professional identities are key to healthy interprofessional teams. When each professional knows their distinctive role within the team, misunderstandings and defensiveness diminish and curiosity and supportiveness about the others’ unique contributions blossoms. This book explores the state of the art related to interprofessional palliative care practice and education and focuses on the unique synergy of interprofessional palliative care teams. It explores both the unique specialty contributions of each profession and the shared specialty palliative care activities that all professions on the team are expected to perform.

With chapters written and edited by chaplains, nurses, physicians, social workers, and other professionals, this book includes in-depth literature review, theoretical frameworks for research, education, and practice, practical guidance for implementing educational and clinical program development, and inspiring descriptions of an aspirational future for intentionally interprofessional palliative care. Spanning three comprehensive sections, the first provides an overview of the discipline of palliative care, terminology, roles of team members, and theories of interprofessional collaboration. The second explores interprofessional palliative care education, beginning with theory and evidence and then application in academic settings, clinical learning environments, and continuing education. The third examines interprofessional practice in a variety of settings including hospice, hospital, outpatient clinics, and home.

Readers from any profession or discipline who are interested in the essence of interprofessional education and practice will find value in the interprofessional approach to palliative care. Professors and teachers of pre-licensure health professions, graduate level courses, and continuing education courses will find Intentionally Interprofessional Palliative Care to be a valuable resource, both for profession-specific and interprofessional learner cohorts.

DorAnne Donesky, PhD, ANP-BC is an adult nurse practitioner and professor emerita at University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Donesky is the founding faculty and nurse lead for ＂Practice-PC,＂ a longitudinal interprofessional palliative care continuing education course for practicing clinicians. Clinically, DorAnne has over 25 years of experience in pulmonary symptom management and palliative care-supporting patients with chronic lung disease through clinic visits, pulmonary rehabilitation, clinical research, and Better Breathers support group facilitation. She is a fellow of the American Thoracic Society and a fellow of Hospice and Palliative Nursing through the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association, a Cambia Sojourns Scholar, and a Macy Faculty Scholar.

Michelle M. Milic, MD, FCCP is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (MGUH) in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, and the Division of Palliative Care Medicine. As a clinician educator, Dr. Milic’s clinical and scholarly work focuses on finding collaborative, cross-sectoral, and patient-centered answers to questions that often arise at the intersection of these specialties. The Georgetown motto is cura personalis, or care for the whole person, which is the essence of compassionate and holistic care. Dr. Milic infuses this concept into practice by bringing interprofessional palliative care principles to patients with advanced lung disease, those who are critically ill in the intensive care unit (ICU), and those suffering from neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS.

As a Cambia Sojourns Scholar, Dr. Milic leads interprofessional teams conducting educational workshops called Improving Palliative Care Teamwork in the ICU- Interprofessional Education (IMPACT-IPE). The program is designed to provide communication skills training, team-based support and to address moral distress for clinical ICU teams. Improving communication and functionality in an ICU can improve the work culture and create a sense of camaraderie, trust, and support, which in turn builds the essential trust necessary for teamwork and ultimately improved patient care.

Naomi Tzril Saks, MA, MDiv, BCC serves as the inpatient palliative care chaplain, chaplain supervisor, and director of the Individual and Collective Wellbeing Program for hospice and palliative care fellows at the University of California, San Francisco. She was ordained as a Rabbinic Pastor by Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi, and is a board certified chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains. She received a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School, a Master of Arts degree in Business Management from Antioch University, and completed seminary with ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. Prior to coming to UCSF Naomi was Director of Spiritual Care and a palliative care specialist with Kaiser Permanente and founded a national non-profit educational organization focused on economic wellbeing and social activism with women and girls. Naomi has a particular interest in equitable and accessible palliative care, integrative interventions for symptoms and wellbeing, interprofessional education and practice, professional wellbeing, and spiritual, religious, existential and cultural humility/pluralism in medicine.

Cara Wallace, PhD, LMSW, APHSW-C is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Saint Louis University and coordinator for SLU’s Interprofessional Gerontology Certificate Program. Her scholarship focuses on end-of-life care and (1) barriers to care; (2) quality of care; and (3) educating students, professionals, and the public about death, illness, loss, and grief. Dr. Wallace is funded by NIH/NINR and her work is informed by years of experience in hospice and hospital systems. She is a Cambia Sojourns Scholar, and a 2020 recipient of Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network’s Award for Excellence in Psychosocial Research.