TY - JOUR
T1 - Communication dynamics in hospice teams
T2 - Understanding the role of the chaplain in interdisciplinary team collaboration
AU - Wittenberg-Lyles, Elaine
AU - Oliver, Debra Parker
AU - Demiris, George
AU - Baldwin, Paula
AU - Regehr, Kelly
PY - 2008/12/1
Y1 - 2008/12/1
N2 - Background: Hospice chaplains provide a specific expertise to patient and family care, however, individual roles and responsibilities that facilitate the interdisciplinary team environment are less well known. Objective: The primary aim of this study was to investigate how hospice chaplains perceive their role in interdisciplinary team meetings and to what extent hospice chaplains share common experiences within the interdisciplinary team approach in hospice. Method: Hospice chaplains within a 10-state region participated in a 39-item phone survey about professional roles, group roles, and structural characteristics that influence their ability to participate in interdisciplinary collaboration. Results: Findings revealed that professional role conflict is experienced, primarily with social workers. Informal group task and maintenance roles included team spiritual care advisor and conflict manager, and structural characteristics consisted of extracurricular communication outside of the organization. Conclusions: Although chaplains foster interdisciplinary collaboration within the hospice team, future research needs to address improvements to the chaplain's role within the interdisciplinary team process.
AB - Background: Hospice chaplains provide a specific expertise to patient and family care, however, individual roles and responsibilities that facilitate the interdisciplinary team environment are less well known. Objective: The primary aim of this study was to investigate how hospice chaplains perceive their role in interdisciplinary team meetings and to what extent hospice chaplains share common experiences within the interdisciplinary team approach in hospice. Method: Hospice chaplains within a 10-state region participated in a 39-item phone survey about professional roles, group roles, and structural characteristics that influence their ability to participate in interdisciplinary collaboration. Results: Findings revealed that professional role conflict is experienced, primarily with social workers. Informal group task and maintenance roles included team spiritual care advisor and conflict manager, and structural characteristics consisted of extracurricular communication outside of the organization. Conclusions: Although chaplains foster interdisciplinary collaboration within the hospice team, future research needs to address improvements to the chaplain's role within the interdisciplinary team process.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=58149229561&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1089/jpm.2008.0165
DO - 10.1089/jpm.2008.0165
M3 - Article
C2 - 19115893
AN - SCOPUS:58149229561
SN - 1096-6218
VL - 11
SP - 1330
EP - 1335
JO - Journal of palliative medicine
JF - Journal of palliative medicine
IS - 10
ER -