Palliative care for patients with hematologic malignancies in Germany: a nationwide survey on everyday practice and influencing factors from the perspective of treating physicians.

Integrating palliative care into the treatment of patients with advanced hematological malignancies (HM) remains challenging. To explore treating physicians' perspectives on current palliative care practice and to evaluate factors influencing integration, we conducted a nationwide online survey. Based on literature and expert review, the survey addressed the importance of palliative care, communication about life-threatening conditions, challenges in establishing goals of care, and factors influencing the integration of palliative care. 207 physicians treating patients with HM in Germany participated. We used standard descriptive statistics to analyze quantitative data and a content structuring approach. Most physicians considered palliative care in HM to be very important (60.6%) and discussed life-threatening conditions with more than half of their patients (52%), especially when goals of care were changed (87.0%) or when patients raised the topic (84.0%). Disease-related factors, different professional perspectives on prognosis, and patient hopes were the main barriers to changing goals of care, but collaboration with colleagues and multidisciplinary teams provided important support. Time constraints were identified as the main barrier to integrating palliative care. The majority worked well with palliative care teams. Referral processes and conditions were perceived as minor barriers. The study highlights the need to address barriers to integrating palliative care into the management of patients with advanced HM. Future research should aim at optimizing palliative care for patients with HM.

Perceptions of Quality of Interprofessional Collaboration, Staff Well-Being and Nonbeneficial Treatment: A Comparison between Nurses and Physicians in Intensive and Palliative Care.

This study assessed differences in interprofessional collaboration, perception of nonbeneficial care, and staff well-being between critical care and palliative care teams. In six German hospitals, a staff survey was conducted between December 2013 and March 2015 among nurses and physicians in intensive and palliative care units. To allow comparability between unit types, a matching was performed for demographic characteristics of staff. N = 313 critical care and 79 palliative care staff participated, of which 72 each were successfully matched. Critical care nurses perceived the poorest overall quality of collaboration compared with critical care physicians and palliative care physicians and nurses. They also reported less inclusive leadership from attendings and head nurses, and the least collaboration on care decisions with physicians. They were most likely to perceive nonbeneficial care, and they reported the lowest levels of job satisfaction and the highest intention to leave the job. In partial correlations, aspects of high-quality collaboration were associated with less perceived nonbeneficial care and higher staff well-being for both critical care and palliative care staff. Our findings indicate that critical care teams could improve collaboration and enhance well-being, particularly among nurses, by adopting principles of collaborative work culture as established in palliative care.