Meyer Dorothee, Schmidt Pia, Zernikow Boris, Wager Julia
1 Pediatric Palliative Care Center, Children's and Adolescents' Hospital, Datteln, Germany.
2 Department of Children's Pain Therapy and Pediatric Palliative Care, Faculty of Health, School of Medicine, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany.
Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2018 Jul;35(7):951-958. doi: 10.1177/1049909117751419. Epub 2018 Jan 9.
Multidisciplinary teamwork is considered central to pediatric palliative care. Although different studies state that volunteers play an essential role in palliative care, little is known about the collaboration between volunteers and staff.
This study aims to explore and compare the perspectives of volunteers and staff regarding collaboration in a pediatric palliative care unit.
A mixed-methods approach was chosen to appropriately reflect the complex aspects of collaboration.
SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: Both face-to-face interviews with staff who work together with volunteers and a group discussion with all volunteers were conducted. These were supplemented by 2 questionnaires designed for this study that examined participants' characteristics and their estimation of what information volunteers need before they meet a patient.
Nine staff members and 7 volunteers participated in this study. Their ideas of collaboration could be grouped into 3 categories: (i) factual level of collaboration, (ii) relationship level of collaboration, and (iii) overall appraisal of collaboration (suggestions for improvement).
Communication can be considered a key factor in successful collaboration between volunteers and staff. Because many patients in pediatric palliative care units are not able to communicate verbally, good information flow between volunteers and staff is crucial for ensuring quality patient care. Moreover, communication is the key to establishing a team philosophy by clarifying roles and building relationships between volunteers and staff.
多学科团队合作被认为是儿科姑息治疗的核心。尽管不同研究表明志愿者在姑息治疗中发挥着重要作用，但对于志愿者与工作人员之间的合作却知之甚少。
本研究旨在探索和比较志愿者与工作人员对儿科姑息治疗病房中合作的看法。
选择混合方法以恰当反映合作的复杂方面。
背景/参与者：对与志愿者共事的工作人员进行了面对面访谈，并与所有志愿者进行了小组讨论。此外还补充了为本研究设计的两份问卷，用于调查参与者的特征以及他们对志愿者在接触患者前所需信息的估计。
9名工作人员和7名志愿者参与了本研究。他们关于合作的想法可分为三类：（i）合作的实际层面，（ii）合作的关系层面，以及（iii）对合作的总体评价（改进建议）。
沟通可被视为志愿者与工作人员成功合作的关键因素。由于儿科姑息治疗病房中的许多患者无法进行言语交流，志愿者与工作人员之间良好的信息流对于确保优质的患者护理至关重要。此外，沟通是通过明确角色以及建立志愿者与工作人员之间的关系来确立团队理念的关键。
