“Such an institution represents the circle of life” – bringing an inpatient hospice into an academic setting: a pre-implementation exploratory study

BACKGROUND: To combine the benefits of hospice and palliative care, the integration of both seems self-evident. Aim of this study was to explore clinical staff’s and volunteers’ expectations and concerns of the first university hospice in Germany planning for implementation. METHODS: Staff and volunteers of the Department of Palliative Medicine of the University Hospital in Cologne received questionnaires and were interviewed following three themes of interest: opportunities, challenges, general criteria. Questionnaire results were analyzed descriptively using mean ± SD and percentages, open-ended questions and interviews were analysed using content analysis. RESULTS: A total of 28/100 questionnaires was returned (n = 17 clinical staff, n = 11 volunteers) and 18 interviews conducted. The majority of both clinical staff and volunteers estimated the need for a university inpatient hospice as rather to very high (64.7% and 81.8%, respectively). Our findings revealed that most clinical staff and volunteers anticipated improvements with the intended university inpatient hospice, although their expectations were divided between both hope and concern while adhering to legal and general requirements, which they feared might oppose such a project. Participants expressed concern about leadership and staffing plans, albeit most pronounced among clinical staff. Nursing staff repeatedly articulated concerns about being interchanged between the palliative care ward and the intended inpatient hospice while they had explicitly chosen to work in palliative medicine. CONCLUSIONS: The overall high level of anticipated progress and excitement is very encouraging. Albeit serious concerns were mentioned, our results indicate that all participants believe in a positive impact and highlight the need of developing a solid concept. In order to implement such a hospice within a university setting, it is important to consider multilevel contextual factors such as system-level factors (funding, external and internal regulations), organization-level factors (leadership, staff motivation), and patient-level factors (adaptability to patients' needs). Our findings illustrate the importance of understanding the context of practice before implementation. Our pre-implementation study helps identify critical views from staff members and volunteers that may hinder or advance the implementation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was registered at the German Clinical Trials Register (#DRKS00021258) on April 17(th) 2020. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12904-023-01220-6.