Authors (including presenting author) :
Mau KY(1)
Affiliation :
(1)Palliative Care Unit, Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital
Introduction :
Palliative Care Unit of Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital (OLMH) delivers 24-hour coverage service in order to provide continuity of care to patients diagnosed with terminal cancer or end-stage renal failure and their families. Through 24-hour palliative care hotline consultative service, they could access ongoing professional information, assistance, and specific support. Calls would be answered by on-duty palliative care nurses including home care nurses or ward nurses to meet patients’ information needs, provide emotional support and ensure effective communication. In this project, we try to empower nursing staff in Palliative Care Unit to handle the call from OLMH 24-hour palliative care hotline service and with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of the hotline service.
Objectives :
The purpose of this project is to enhance team communication and staff competence on 24-hour Palliative Care Hotline Consultative Service.
Methodology :
To enhance team communication and provide efficient palliative care hotline consultative service, a systemic workflow for the service is designed as a cue card for nursing staff in palliative care unit. The workflow serves as a guide for nursing staff to handle the calls. They are required to gather sufficient relevant information through the call and communicate with related team member in order to provide efficient response to the case. The cue card will be distributed and explained to each nursing staff. They will then be invited to provide feedback and comment about the workflow of palliative care hotline consultative service.
Result & Outcome :
17 nurses in palliative care unit were trained and they all believed that the workflow is easy understanding; useful; and efficient in hotline service. However, 4 nurses, especially junior registered nurses and enrolled nurses, worried about the difficulty on gathering enough relevant information from the patient or caregiver. More training and reassurance may be helpful for them to enhance their competence on handling telephone calls in palliative care hotline consultative service.
