Leadership Skills in Palliative Care
Effective palliative care leaders balance the needs of their patients and families, teams, organizations, and external stakeholders. Use this toolkit to draft a strategic plan for delivery of high-quality palliative care, support your team to execute on the plan, build your standing as a leader, and connect with fellow palliative care leaders.
What’s in the Toolkit
Strategic Planning
If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter how you get there. The strategic plan articulates your mission and how your program will accomplish it. It is an essential roadmap and communication tool for your team, organizational leaders, and referrers.
The National Consensus Project (NCP) Clinical Practice Guidelines are the national standard for high quality palliative care. National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care, 2018.
Evaluating patient need, service requirements, and stakeholder priorities for the inpatient program.
Evaluating patient need, service requirements, care settings, and stakeholder priorities for the community-based palliative care program.
Strategic planning for new or veteran programs, and a framework for identification of barriers to team efficiency and team health.
Five sample palliative care mission statements defining the aims of the program. Center to Advance Palliative Care, 2015.
Example shared by Lee Health, 2012.
Shared by Interim HealthCare/CarePoint, 2017
Leadership Networking and Mentoring
Connect with peers and field experts on CAPC’s faculty: just-in-time problem solving, shared advice, new ideas, and peer mentoring.
Small-group consulting calls with national subject matter experts.
Palliative Care Leadership Centers (PCLC) offer hospitals two days of in-person, customized operational training and one year of mentoring.
Develop Leadership Skills
Online and in-person skill-building resources for palliative care leaders from all disciplines.
Hire and onboard your staff, manage program operations, and ensure a healthy high-functioning team using this toolkit.
Evaluating patient need, service requirements, and stakeholder priorities for the inpatient program.
Evaluating patient need, service requirements, care settings, and stakeholder priorities for the community-based palliative care program.
Strategic planning for new or veteran programs, and a framework for identification of barriers to team efficiency and team health.
Advancing hospice and palliative medicine and palliative care physician leadership.
Educational pathways for physician leadership for all specialties.
Palliative care nursing leadership and professional development.
Presenters: Constance Dahlin, APN-BC, ACHPN, FPCN, FAAN and Lolita Melhado, PhD, ARNP, FNP-BC. CAPC Seminar, 2016.
Worksheet to accompany "Essential Nurse Leadership Skills" Presentation.
Palliative care social work leadership and professional development.
Suggestions for how to respond to some common reactions by leaders and other stakeholders.
Make the Case for the Value of Palliative Care
Articulating the value of the palliative care program to your stakeholders is the key to resources and support.
Tools to make the case for palliative care resources and financial partnerships, including: the palliative care evidence base, and downloadable tools for presenting the case.
Tools to develop financial partnerships including: making the case, contracting considerations, and how to use legal and financial advisers.
Building and Supporting an Effective Team
Use this toolkit to hire, onboard, retain, and support a healthy team.
Hire and onboard your staff, manage program operations, and ensure a healthy high-functioning team using this toolkit.
Strategic planning for new or veteran programs, and a framework for identification of barriers to team efficiency and team health.
