Nurse-led palliative care services facilitate an interdisciplinary network of care

BACKGROUND: Caring for palliative patients at home is complex and challenging. Specialist palliative care exists to provide high quality of care in complex situations. This study aimed to describe the characteristics of a specialist nurse-led palliative care service in an urban Swiss region. METHODS: A qualitative study design adopting a grounded theory approach was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 41 participants including family caregivers, home care nurses, referring services, treating physicians, specialist nurses and external politicians. In addition, statistical information was included. FINDINGS: Specialist nurses played an important role in building and maintaining an interdisciplinary network of care, necessary for the management of complex palliative situations. They performed tasks such as to "include" members and to "negotiate" the network of care with the family and providers. They "tailored" the support to patients and families' needs and as a result "empowered" the network of care. CONCLUSION: A nurse-led palliative care service facilitated interdisciplinary palliative home care to the benefit of all agents involved.