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Developing competencies for multidisciplinary hospice and palliative care professionals in Korea

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Abstract

Purpose

Competency-based assessment helps to improve performance and to standardize education programs for hospice and palliative care professionals. This paper aims to report the process and results of developing the hospice and palliative care competencies by multidisciplinary experts in Korea.

Methods

The competency development task force team of Korean hospice and palliative care professionals was comprised of seven physicians, four nurses, two social workers, and two clergy. To build consensus regarding competencies, the team performed a two-round Delphi survey. The importance of competency domains was assessed by using a 5-point Likert scale. After the completion of the Delphi survey, final competency domains were decided in a consensus meeting.

Results

The competencies were composed of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The competency domains were identified as the following: 11 domains and 16 subdomains for physicians, 11 domains for nurses, 5 domains and 15 subdomains for social workers, as well as 3 domains and 5 subdomains for spiritual care providers. The high importance domains were different by specialties. Physical care and treatment for physicians, symptom management for nurses, bereavement care for social workers, and communication for spiritual care providers were ranked as highly important. For nurses and spiritual care providers, attitude-related domains were ranked the highest in importance.

Conclusion

The competencies developed by multidisciplinary professionals are useful to identify the appropriate roles of each hospice and palliative care specialist involved in a team approach to patient care.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all members of Delphi panel and many multidisciplinary members of the Korean Society of Hospice & Palliative Care who help to develop the competencies. This work was supported by a grant from the National Cancer Center of Korea.

Conflict of interest statement

None.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hospice & Palliative Care Branch, National Cancer Center, 323 Ilsan-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 410-769, Republic of Korea

    Jina Kang, Yeol Kim & Jin Young Choi

  2. College of Nursing, The Catholic University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Yang Suk Yoo & Yun Jung

  3. Palliative Care Unit of Cancer Center, Good Samaritan Hospital, Pohang, Republic of Korea

    Su Jin Koh

  4. Family Medicine Clinic, National Cancer Center, Goyang, Republic of Korea

    Yeol Kim & Hyun Jung Jho

  5. Department of Family Medicine, Korea University Guro Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Youn Seon Choi

  6. Palliative Care and Hospice Center, Bobath Memorial Hospital, Seongnam, Republic of Korea

    Jeanno Park

  7. Department of Internal Medicine, Sihwa General Hospital, Sihwa, Republic of Korea

    Do Ho Moon

  8. Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Dongguk University Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, Republic of Korea

    Do Yeun Kim

  9. Medical Social Services Team, Korea University Guro hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Won Chul Kim

  10. Department of Social Welfare, Hanbuk University, Dongducheon, Republic of Korea

    Seung Hee Lim

  11. Department of Family Medicine, Shin Cheon Union Hospital, Siheung, Republic of Korea

    Seung Joo Hwang

  12. Seoul, Dong Sung High school, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Sang Ok Choe

  13. Department of Symptom Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Yeol Kim & Desiree Jones

Authors
  1. Jina Kang
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  2. Yeol Kim
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  3. Yang Suk Yoo
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  4. Jin Young Choi
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  5. Su Jin Koh
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  6. Hyun Jung Jho
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  7. Youn Seon Choi
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  8. Jeanno Park
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  9. Do Ho Moon
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  10. Do Yeun Kim
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  11. Yun Jung
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  12. Won Chul Kim
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  13. Seung Hee Lim
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  14. Seung Joo Hwang
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  15. Sang Ok Choe
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  16. Desiree Jones
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yeol Kim.

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Kang, J., Kim, Y., Yoo, Y.S. et al. Developing competencies for multidisciplinary hospice and palliative care professionals in Korea. Support Care Cancer 21, 2707–2717 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-013-1850-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-013-1850-3

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