Increasing interprofessional collaboration in community-based palliative care: a pilot study of the CAPACITI education program for primary care providers

Abstract

Interprofessional collaboration in palliative care is essential to ensuring high-quality care for seriously ill patients. Education interventions to increase competency in palliative care should incorporate team-building skills to encourage an interprofessional approach. We developed and piloted a virtual educational program named CAPACITI for interprofessional teams to promote a community palliative approach to care. Primary care teams from across Ontario, Canada, participated in CAPACITI which consisted of 10 facilitated sessions that emphasized how to operationalize a palliative care approach as a team. Pre- and post-study questionnaires were completed by each team, including the AITCS-II, a validated instrument that measures interprofessional collaboration. We analyzed individual paired differences in summary scores and in each of three subdomains of the AITCS-II questionnaire: partnership, cooperation, and coordination. Seventeen teams completed the AITCS-II post survey, representing 133 participants. Teams varied demographically and ranged from 5 to 16 members. After CAPACITI, the overall mean AITCS-II summary score among teams increased to 96.0 (SD = 10.0) for a significant paired mean difference increase of 9.4 (p = .03). There were also significant increases in the partnership (p = .01) and in the cooperation subdomains (p = .04). CAPACITI demonstrated the potential for improving collaboration among primary care teams, which can lead to improved provider and patient outcomes in palliative care.

Keywords: Collaboration; interprofessional education; knowledge translation; palliative care; primary care.