Social work and interprofessional collaboration in palliative care

Over the past decade, the number of hospital-based palliative care teams has significantly increased in the US and Canada, as well as other parts of the world. As a result, the number of social workers practicing in this arena of healthcare has increased. These teams have unique characteristics and highly value interprofessional care delivery. This is a team environment that can be qualitatively unlike any that its members have previously experienced. This article describes how social workers function within hospital-based palliative care teams, including some of the challenges and opportunities potentially encountered in establishing this role. It also examines some important concepts emerging from literature about interprofessional collaboration (IPC). It is valuable for social workers new to this arena to draw on the concepts of collaborative practice to establish their role, negotiate their place within and across teams, and to influence their teams effectively in their development.