@article{59e40d50428e11ddb7b4000ea68e967b,
title = "Cooperating with a palliative home-care team: expectations and evaluations of GPs and district nurses.",
abstract = "BACKGROUND: Palliative home-care teams often cooperate with general practitioners (GPs) and district nurses. Our aim was to evaluate a palliative home-care team from the viewpoint of GPs and district nurses. METHODS: GPs and district nurses received questionnaires at the start of home-care and one month later. Questions focussed on benefits to patients, training issues for professionals and cooperation between the home-care team and the GP/ district nurse. A combination of closed- and open-ended questions was used. RESULTS: Response rate was 84% (467/553). Benefits to patients were experienced by 91 %, mainly due to improvement in symptom management, 'security', and accessibility of specialists in palliative care. After one month, 57% of the participants reported to have learnt aspects of palliative care, primarily symptom control, and 89% of them found cooperation satisfactory. Dissatisfaction was caused mainly by lack of information from the home-care team to primary-care professionals. CONCLUSION: GPs and district nurses welcomed the palliative home-care team and most experienced benefits to patients. Strengthened communication, initiated by the home-care team would enhance cooperation.",
author = "Dorthe Goldschmidt and Mogens Groenvold and Johnsen, {Anna Thit} and Str{\"o}mgren, {Annette S} and Allan Krasnik and Lone Schmidt",
note = "Keywords: Attitude of Health Personnel; Community Health Nursing; Denmark; Family Practice; Home Care Services; Humans; Interprofessional Relations; Palliative Care; Program Evaluation; Prospective Studies; Quality of Health Care; Questionnaires",
year = "2005",
language = "English",
volume = "19",
pages = "241--50",
journal = "Palliative Medicine",
issn = "0269-2163",
publisher = "SAGE Publications",
number = "3",
}