Note to Readers: Publisher does not guarantee quality or access to any included digital components if book is purchased through a third-party seller. A focus on intentional communication, team building, and relational maintenance This text is designed to help form and maintain palliative care teams that survive and thrive. Whether you are starting a new team or hoping to help an existing team, this text addresses aspects of team players, leadership, meetings, organizational culture, and self- and team-care through a combination of empirical data and real voices from healthcare professionals in palliative care practice. By focusing on the individual professional in relation to team health and success, this text shows how to develop high-quality, high-performing palliative care teams. Perfect for students and working professionals, this text is useful at any time in your career or your team’s development. It explores the types of providers involved in palliative care, their roles, possible conflicts, and the opportunity to amplify their work as a team while overcoming the stigma that may be attached to palliative care. This book focuses on the foundational role of communication in leadership, team building, and the delivery of patient care. Designed to provide workable solutions to challenges such as poor team design, siloing, and faulty communication, it provides suggestions that can be implemented immediately by your palliative care team. This focus allows healthcare professionals who are passionate about palliative care to grow into high-functioning teams with a focus on excellent patient care. Key Features: Satisfactory and unsatisfactory palliative care experiences Stories from nurses, social workers, chaplains, physicians, pharmacists, executives, patients, and families Pearls From the Field: Provider and team takeaways Best practices of team leaders Tips for individuals and palliative care teams to communicate with other providers, departments, and senior leadership Discussions on how to improve short-term and long-term functionality Outlines to use as predictors of burnout for palliative care professionals and teams Self-care and team-care suggestions A combination of recent research and theory in an accessible writing style Includes podcasts, videos, and case study and self-care plan supplements

'The Textbook of Palliative Care Communication' is the authoritative text on communication in palliative care. Uniquely developed by an interdisciplinary editorial team to address an array of providers including physicians, nurses, social workers, and chaplains, it unites clinicians and academic researchers interested in the study of communication.

"The first edition of Communication in Palliative Nursing was published in 2012 and became the market leader for nurses wanting to learn more about how to improve and teach palliative care communication. For the last 8 years, it has remained the only text solely focused on the vital role of nurses in palliative care. During this time, the COMFORT model was taught to nurses nationwide who brought the curriculum back to their own institutions and taught components of the model to more than 10,000 healthcare providers across the United States (Wittenberg, Ferrell, Goldsmith, Ragan, & Buller, 2017). Numerous journal articles and research studies have been produced to highlight the principle components of the COMFORT model and test its effectiveness among healthcare audiences across a variety of clinical and educational settings. Through this all, as the model was disseminated to clinical audiences of bedside nurses, nurse leaders, nursing students, and interprofessional learners, feedback was captured about COMFORT. Comments revealed major components of the model that were working and weren't working for the nurses and other healthcare providers who utilized the strategies with patients and families, and began using curriculum tools for teaching and integrating palliative care communication instruction. So, much like the model's grounding in a transactional communication approach, which relies on the co-created interaction between parties, it was clear that the COMFORT model was also ebbing and flowing and had to change. More importantly, palliative care has been growing, changing, expanding, and becoming more sophisticated, more wide-spread! Now more than ever before, palliative care is provided in the home, clinic, or inpatient setting and serves patients who are seriously or chronically ill and their families. It became evident that in order to continue improvements to the model and to keep up with the changing landscape of palliative care and palliative patient populations, a new edition was necessary. Before we highlight the changes, it is never too early to overstate our steadfast commitment to the following principles: We believe that communication research and theory can shape palliative care practices, providing tools for a variety of contexts. We believe that palliative care, offering compassionate, holistic treatment for patients and their families, will not be possible without caring for the entire person (body and mind). We believe that communicating about palliative care must begin at diagnosis of serious illness, not just at end-stages. We believe in a patient-centered approach to communication that emphasizes the role of the family caregiver in the illness trajectory. We believe that intentional communication emphasizing team processes among physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, and other healthcare professionals improves palliative care practice. We believe that palliative care should be introduced early in the communication education of all health professionals. We believe that education about palliative care and communication must extend to patients and families who can then advocate for and partner more productively in such services. We believe that communication with the family caregiver is essential for the treatment of pain and symptom management. We believe that frequent conversations are needed across the disease/care trajectory, as patients and families encounter ongoing points of decision-making"--

This exceptional work explores the complexities of communication at one of the most critical stages of the life experience--during advanced, serious illness and at the end of life. Challenging the predominantly biomedical model that informs much communication between seriously ill and/or dying patients and their physicians, caregivers, and families, Sandra L. Ragan, Elaine M. Wittenberg-Lyles, Joy Goldsmith, and Sandra Sanchez-Reilly pose palliative care--medical care designed to comfort rather than to cure patients--as an antidote to the experience of most Americans at the most vulnerable juncture of their lives. With an author team comprised of three health communication scholars and one physician certified in geriatrics and palliative medicine, this volume integrates the medical literature on palliative care with that of health communication researchers who advocate a biopsychosocial approach to health care. Applying communication theories and insights to illuminate problems and to explain their complexities, the authors advocate a patient-centered approach to care that recognizes and seeks to lessen patients’ suffering and the many types of pain they may experience (physical, psychological, social, and spiritual) during life-threatening illness.

Communication in Palliative Nursing unites complementary work in communication studies and nursing research to present a theoretically grounded curriculum for teaching palliative care communication to nurses. The chapters outline the COMFORT curriculum, comprised of these elements: Communication, Orientation and opportunity, Mindful presence, Family, Openings, Relating, and Team communication. Central to this curriculum is the need for nurses to practice self-care. Based on a narrative approach to communication, which addresses communication skills development holistically, this volume teaches nurses to consider a holistic model of communication that aligns with the holistic nature of palliative care. This work moves beyond the traditional and singular view of the nurse as patient and family teacher, to embrace more complex communication challenges present in palliative care -- namely, providing care and comfort through communication at a time when patients, families, and nurses themselves are suffering. In addition to collaborating with physicians, the nurse's role involves speaking with patients and families after they have received bad news and often extends to discussions of spiritual and religious concerns. This book covers communication theory, clinical tools, and teaching resources to help nurses enhance their own communication and create comfort for themselves, as well as for patients and their families.

This handbook is an essential guide to caring for the community palliative care patient in relation to COVID-19, when the patient’s preferred place of care is at home or the hospice. It will guide you through appropriate care procedures and protocols in managing end-of-life patients who show symptoms of COVID-19. Key features include: Difficult conversations and communication skills Symptom management Advance care planning Caring for stable patients with palliative needs and those who are at end-of-life Supporting the family and friends of the patient Your own well-being as a healthcare professional Supported by applicable case studies from a range of community care settings, this guide will be relevant to anyone affected by the challenges of COVID-19 when managing end-of-life patients or caring for older people, including paramedics, nurses and palliative care providers.

"The first edition of Communication in Palliative Nursing was published in 2012 and became the market leader for nurses wanting to learn more about how to improve and teach palliative care communication. For the last 8 years, it has remained the only text solely focused on the vital role of nurses in palliative care. During this time, the COMFORT model was taught to nurses nationwide who brought the curriculum back to their own institutions and taught components of the model to more than 10,000 healthcare providers across the United States (Wittenberg, Ferrell, Goldsmith, Ragan, & Buller, 2017). Numerous journal articles and research studies have been produced to highlight the principle components of the COMFORT model and test its effectiveness among healthcare audiences across a variety of clinical and educational settings. Through this all, as the model was disseminated to clinical audiences of bedside nurses, nurse leaders, nursing students, and interprofessional learners, feedback was captured about COMFORT. Comments revealed major components of the model that were working and weren't working for the nurses and other healthcare providers who utilized the strategies with patients and families, and began using curriculum tools for teaching and integrating palliative care communication instruction. So, much like the model's grounding in a transactional communication approach, which relies on the co-created interaction between parties, it was clear that the COMFORT model was also ebbing and flowing and had to change. More importantly, palliative care has been growing, changing, expanding, and becoming more sophisticated, more wide-spread! Now more than ever before, palliative care is provided in the home, clinic, or inpatient setting and serves patients who are seriously or chronically ill and their families. It became evident that in order to continue improvements to the model and to keep up with the changing landscape of palliative care and palliative patient populations, a new edition was necessary. Before we highlight the changes, it is never too early to overstate our steadfast commitment to the following principles: We believe that communication research and theory can shape palliative care practices, providing tools for a variety of contexts. We believe that palliative care, offering compassionate, holistic treatment for patients and their families, will not be possible without caring for the entire person (body and mind). We believe that communicating about palliative care must begin at diagnosis of serious illness, not just at end-stages. We believe in a patient-centered approach to communication that emphasizes the role of the family caregiver in the illness trajectory. We believe that intentional communication emphasizing team processes among physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, and other healthcare professionals improves palliative care practice. We believe that palliative care should be introduced early in the communication education of all health professionals. We believe that education about palliative care and communication must extend to patients and families who can then advocate for and partner more productively in such services. We believe that communication with the family caregiver is essential for the treatment of pain and symptom management. We believe that frequent conversations are needed across the disease/care trajectory, as patients and families encounter ongoing points of decision-making"--