Communication and Care Coordination for the Palliative Care Team

Rebecca S. Imes, PhD (University of Iowa), is associate professor of communication at Carroll University. With a lifelong interest in provider-patient relationships, she began her study of health communication at Tufts University School of Medicine and Emerson College, and she has been researching and teaching in this area for the past 20 years. Her research interests concern relationships in health contexts, and her work includes research on patient-family communication, provider-patient communication, and communication in high-functioning palliative care teams. She also lectures on topics in health communication in settings such as the Medical College of Wisconsin and the Bader International Study Center in Herstmonceux, England. She is published in Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, Journal of Family Communication, Psycho-Oncology, Family Relations, and Patient Education and Counseling, among others. Leah M. Omilion-Hodges, PhD (Wayne State University), is associate professor in the School of Communication at Western Michigan University. Her research fuses organizational communication with health communication, allowing her to explore questions that are relevant to academics and practitioners within applied communication contexts. Dr. Omilion-Hodges draws from her years of professional experience working in the healthcare industry to help her design research projects that are theoretically grounded but offer real-world insight for organizational members. Her primary areas of research include leader-member relationships, workgroup dynamics, and the employee experience within the palliative care setting. Her work has been published in Leadership Quarterly, Management Communication Quarterly, Communication Yearbook: Annals of the International Communication Association, International Journal of Business Communication, Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, and Health Communication, among others. Jennifer D. B. Hester, DNP (The Christ Hospital Health Network), is a palliative care clinical nurse specialist practicing with a high-performing transdisciplinary team at The Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. She earned a MS and DNP at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and is a board-certified APRN in both palliative care (ACHPN) and oncology (AOCNS). For the past 10 years, she has led the development and growth of a palliative care program that is recognized by The Joint Commission for Advanced Certification in Palliative Care. She serves as faculty for The Christ Hospital's Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program. She has presented her work on the development of electronic health records for outcomes measurement in her field at the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Annual Assemblies and the Center to Advance Palliative Care National Seminars. She is published in the Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing.

Chapter 1: Why We Need to Talk about Practitioners, Teams, and Communication in Palliative Care
I. Need for palliative care communication book
II. Introduction (and rationale for need) to the rest of the book
III. Pearls from the Field: Provider and team takeaways
Chapter 2: Who are the Players? Exploring the Various Types of Palliative Care Providers
I. Introduction
II. Primary vs. Palliative Care
III. Who are the palliative care specialists?
IV. Role clarity
V. Power differentials
VI. Pearls from the Field: Provider and Team Takeaways
Chapter 3: Teams: Purpose and Processes
I. Teamwork on PCTs—importance for patient care
II. Moving from I to We: Team models
III. Team Formation and Maintenance
IV. Pearls from the field
Chapter 4: Leading Teams
I. Best practices of team leaders
II. Importance of team leaders
III. Modeling intentional relational communication
IV. How to communicate like a leader
V. Team growth
Chapter 5: Team Meetings
I. Team meetings as goal coordination
II. Setting up structures and norms for successful team meetings
III. Types of meetings
IV. Direct vs. indirect communication
V. Virtual vs. Face to face teamwork
VI. Family meetings
VII. Pearls from the field
Chapter 6: Occupational Culture: Understanding the Role and Stigma of Palliative Care within Medicine and Organizational Contexts
I. Occupational Culture
II. Occupational impact on interdisciplinary collaboration
III. Tensions between PC providers and other medical providers
IV. Organizational and community challenges for PCTs
V. The role of storytelling in creating meaning and handling challenges
VI. Pearls from the field
Chapter 7: Self-care in Emotional Labor Intensive Positions
I. Palliative care as intense emotional labor
II. Compassion
III. Self-care
IV. Balancing your needs in an team environment
V. Building continual self-care into team processes
VI. Pearls from the field