Broadening Palliative Care Theory and Practice:
An Interdisciplinary Perspective

The concept of palliative care has evolved over time into more than the care of imminently dying individuals. This evolution is due in part to an aging society and an increasingly longer life expectancy. Significant barriers exist to providing optimum palliative care due to conceptual confusion, clinician’s lack of formal preparation and clinical practice, and delayed referral for hospice services. This symposium will broaden the concept of palliative care through a multidisciplinary approach including nursing, medicine, and social work, in an effort to describe necessary systematic changes for successful future implementation of palliative care theory and practice.

Discussion will include 1) a concept analysis and alternative historical perspective on palliative care, 2) development of an interview guide to assist students in palliative care practice, 3) examination of end-of-life nutritional treatment decisions in older cancer patients through the concept of starvation, and 4) the consequences of delayed hospice information and enrollment on bereaved family members of hospice patients.

Objectives:

1. Discuss a broadened conceptualization of palliative care.
2. Evaluate an interview guide for student clinical experiences.
3. Clarify physiologic and metabolic changes in palliative care populations.
4. Summarize consequences in delayed hospice enrollment.