How to Manage Hospital-Based Palliative Care Teams Without Full-Time Palliative Care Physicians in Designated Cancer Care Hospitals: A Qualitative Study

Objective: To clarify how highly active hospital palliative care teams can provide efficient and effective care regardless of the lack of full-time palliative care physicians. Methods: Semistructured focus group interviews were conducted, and content analysis was performed. Results: A total of 7 physicians and 6 nurses participated. We extracted 209 codes from the transcripts and organized them into 3 themes and 21 categories, which were classified as follows: (1) tips for managing palliative care teams efficiently and effectively (7 categories); (2) ways of acquiring specialist palliative care expertise (9 categories); and (3) ways of treating symptoms that are difficult to alleviate (5 categories). Conclusions: The findings of this study can be used as a nautical chart of hospital-based palliative care team (HPCT) without full-time PC physician. Full-time nurses who have high management and coordination abilities play a central role in resource-limited HPCTs.