Improving the Interdisciplinary Clinical Education of a Palliative Care Program through Quality Improvement Initiatives

Palliative care relies on a team approach to manage the complex needs of patients and families living with serious illness. This article describes an interprofessional team's aim to develop an interactive online curriculum in palliative care, with an emphasis on interprofessional education (IPE). The aim of the program is to address the need for formalized interprofessional palliative care education. The interdisciplinary team identified the need for formalized education efforts within our clinical space. To address the need, the team designed an online curriculum based in the core competencies of palliative care and IPE. A new model was established, with the themes of learning about “people,” learning the “job,” and learning “respect.” The team followed the plan-do-study-act model to guide their process. The newly developed interprofessional online curriculum was utilized by palliative care trainees from various disciplines and levels of education. Pre- and post-tests to measure the knowledge, behavior, attitudes, and skills needed for teamwork and core palliative care competencies were completed. Forty-three medical and nursing students, undergraduate and graduate, completed the pretest, and 32 students completed the post-test. Results indicate that learners are growing in interprofessional skills and attitudes, but not in formalized knowledge of palliative care as a result of their clinical experience. Results suggest that more formalized knowledge may need to be provided to learners who come to this clinical experience, which could be delivered through the online curriculum. The knowledge survey should also be re-evaluated for clarity and content.