Expanding the Palliative Care Workforce during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Evaluation of Core Palliative Care Skills in Health Social Workers.
J Palliat Med
; 24(11): 1705-1709, 2021 11.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1287968
ABSTRACT
Background:
Meeting the needs of seriously ill SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) patients requires novel models of deploying health social workers (SWs) to expand the palliative care workforce. To inform such expansion, understanding the current state of health SWs' core palliative care skills is necessary.Methods:
Following minimal training, health SWs in one New York City hospital were surveyed about their frequency, competence, and confidence in using core palliative care skills.Results:
Of the 170 health SWs surveyed, 46 (27%) responded, of whom 21 (46%) and 24 (52%) had palliative care training before and during the COVID-19 surge, respectively. Health SWs reported a "moderate improvement" in the use of three skills "identify a medical decision maker," "assess prognostic understanding," and "coordinate care." There was "minimal decrease" to "no improvement" to "minimal improvement" in competence and confidence of skill use.Conclusion:
Our findings suggest that educational initiatives can improve health SWs' use of core palliative care skills.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Palliative Care
/
Pandemics
/
COVID-19
/
Health Workforce
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Palliat Med
Journal subject:
Health Services
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Jpm.2021.0027
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS