Study on the Personnel Construction and Function of Multidisciplinary Team of Cancer Palliative Care in Shanghai Community

Objective With the worldwide development of palliative care,a new type of cancer patients care,which is based on community as the platform and palliative care team consist of multidisciplinary personnel as the basic service unit,has gained extensive attention and application in the world.Recently,the needs for professionals providing home as well as community palliative care are sharply enhancing due to the intensification of aging degree and the increasing number of cancer patients in Shanghai.This study aims to construct a framework of personnel construction and function of multidisciplinary team of cancer palliative care in Shanghai community on the basis of needs from advanced stage(in the clinical stageⅢ-Ⅳ)cancer patients and their relatives.With a view to enhancing the service quality of cancer palliative care at community level and providing a theoretical guidance for the development of Chinese community palliative care.Methods Based on the Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory,the research methods include literature research, qualitative interview,questionnaire,on-the-spot study and Delphi method.Firstly, qualitative interviews and questionnaires were used to investigate cancer patients and their relatives,in order to gain the major needs at different care forms of community.Secondly, we used on-the-spot studies to inspect some community multidisciplinary teams and palliative care agencies in Shanghai,meanwhile,we refered the advanced experience in literatures,in order to construct the preliminary framework.Finally,After two-round consulation with Delphi methods,we got the final framework.Results A set of relatively scientific,reasonable and need-based framework of personnel construction and function of multidi(?)iplinary team of cancer palliative care in Shanghai community was eventually obtained.This framework includes three parts.First is the forms of cancer patients care in community,including community wards,day care centers and home care.Second is the personnel construction of palliative care team at different forms.Core stuff include general practitioners,nurses and social workers.Other stuff of community wards include psychologists,cancer specialists,nutritionists,rehabilitation therapists,palliative clinical nursing specialist,care workers,traditional Chinese physician and volunteers.Other stuff of day care centers include volunteers,nutritionists,rehabilitation therapists,health care doctors and music therapists.Other stuff of home care include volunteers and health care doctors.Third is the personnel function of palliative care team at different forms. Conclusions The framework of personnel construction and function of multidisciplinary team of cancer palliative care correspond with human needs and social-cultural background of Shanghai,which have a certain feasibility.There are a lot of enlightenment to construct multidisciplinary team in the future.The first,we should further enrich personnel roles and functions.This study shows that our country is short of personnel including social workers,palliative clinical nursing specialist,volunteers and music therapists.The second,we should further strengthen the standard of personnel training.The third,we should further improve the team personnel construction and configuration flexibility.