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

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Supportive Care in Cancer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

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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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the members of the 21 PCC teams for the recording of the requests for consultation. This research project was funded by grants from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Quality of Care Research (229), Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, PO Box 9101, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Marieke M. Groot, Myrra J. F. J. Vernooij-Dassen & Richard P. T. M. Grol

  2. Vocational Training General Practitioners (229), Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, PO Box 9101, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Myrra J. F. J. Vernooij-Dassen

  3. University Hospital Maastricht, PO Box 5800, 6202 AZ, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Annemie M. Courtens

  4. Department of Social Medicine, Institute for Research in Extramural Medicine, VU University Medical Centre Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 7, 1081 BT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Annemieke Kuin

  5. Julius Centre for General Practice and Patient Oriented Research, University Medical Centre Utrecht, PO Box 80035, 3508 TA, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Barbara A. van der Linden

  6. Department of Medical Oncology, Erasmus MC-Daniel den Hoed Cancer Centre, Groene Hilledijk 301, 3075 EA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Lia van Zuylen

  7. Pain Centre (520), Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, PO Box 9101, 6500 HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Ben J. P. Crul

Authors
  1. Marieke M. Groot
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  2. Myrra J. F. J. Vernooij-Dassen
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  3. Annemie M. Courtens
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  4. Annemieke Kuin
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  5. Barbara A. van der Linden
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  6. Lia van Zuylen
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  7. Ben J. P. Crul
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  8. Richard P. T. M. Grol
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marieke M. Groot.

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Groot, M.M., Vernooij-Dassen, M.J.F.J., Courtens, A.M. et al. Requests from professional care providers for consultation with palliative care consultation teams. Support Care Cancer 13, 920–928 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-005-0796-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-005-0796-5

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