Center for Collaborative Palliative Care
We work with education, clinical development, and research and public engagement within palliative care. Our focus is to design a sustainable palliative care that is co-created by patients, family members, healthcare professionals, and researchers.
Center for Collaborative Palliative Care was established in January 2013 and is funded by The Kamprad Family Foundation, Linnaeus University, Region Kronoberg, and the eight municipalities in Kronoberg County.
Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual (World Health Organization).
Our vision and goal
Our vision is that all patients with life-threatening illnesses and their family members should experience a good palliative care. Patients and family members should feel that they get support and that family members get support after the patient’s death.
Our goal is that healthcare professionals should be well-trained in order to be able to work with patients and family members to create a well-functioning palliative care. The care is to be developed so that these parties, together with researchers, apply so-called evidence-based care in a continuous, integrative learning. In this way, the patients’ and family members’ involvement in the care is strengthened, which increases the quality of care.
Areas of activity
Research
Our research
The center focuses on clinical research through a collaboration between the academy and the clinical activities. We work to implement our research results in the clinical practice. Thus, our research is characterized by an ambition to use methods that enable parallel data collection and implementation, for instance, in the form of action research, so that the results more quickly can be of benefit to patients, family members and healthcare professionals.
Research projects
Serious illness conversation model (in Swedish)
Caring mealtime situations in nursing homes (in Swedish)
Metaphors in palliative cancer care (in English)
Other research projects
- Describe and explore what it means to be able to live a dignified life, what characterizes a dignified palliative care, and dignity-conserving caring actions from the perspectives of patients, family members, families, and healthcare professional.
- Generate Classic Grounded Theories on how patients and family members can live dignified lives.
- “Implementation of knowledge-based palliative care for elderly people at nursing homes (KUPA)”, was initiated in 2014 as an implementation project in collaboration with Region Skåne, Lund University, Palliativt Utvecklingscentrum in Lund, and Linköping University. Project manager was professor Gerd Ahlström, Lund University. An educational intervention was conducted based on seminars in palliative care for healthcare professionals. The project involved residents, family members, and healthcare professionals at nursing homes. The intervention was carried out in 2015 at 10 nursing homes in Kronoberg County, while 10 nursing homes in Region Skåne were control units. In 2016, Region Skåne had the role of intervention county and Kronoberg was the control county. Several papers have been published so far.
- Symptoms, care needs and diagnoses in patients with palliative care needs in acute care hospitals. The aim of the study was to describe and compare symptoms, care needs, and diagnoses of inpatients at two hospitals in Sweden and two hospitals in Spain. This was a population-based study with a cross-sectional design. The data collection has taken place at all medicine, surgery, and oncology departments at two hospitals during 2002, 2007, and 2012, as well as two hospitals in Spain during 2015.
Previous project
Report from the follow-up research for Center for Collaborative Palliative Care (2013-2017) (in Swedish)
Education
The aim is to offer courses and programmes in palliative care at all education levels and to carry out specially-designed education courses and lectures for different groups.
Nursing programme
A dialogue is being held with the head of department and coordinators for the programmes and courses in order to integrate palliative care as parts of the programmes and the courses. There is an eligible course in palliative care, 7.5 credits that is offered as a web-based course.
Contact nurse course
The content of the contact nurse course focuses on how contact nurses can support patients and family members in the care process based on individual needs and requests. One course element has specifically comprised the contact nurses’ role in palliative care situations where people from our center have taken part in the teaching.
Second-cycle level (master level)
A dialogue is being held with all representatives for second-cycle programmes in order to strengthen the presence of elements of palliative care. Since 2016, the course person-centered care and palliative approach (7.5 credits) is part of the specialist nursing programme, elderly care.
Third-cycle education (doctoral level)
A doctoral course with focus on phenomena in palliative care has been carried out at a number of occasions.
Specific lectures
In collaboration with Vård- och Omsorgs College Kronoberg, we carry out training and inspiration days aimed at all upper-secondary care and nursing programmes in Kronoberg County that are connected to Vård- och Omsorgs College Kronoberg. The aim is to equip future assistant nurses for their role, concerning the meeting with patients with palliative needs and their family members.
Clinical development
Clinical development of palliative care in Kronoberg County is in focus. Our mission is to train and educate healthcare professionals in palliative care, to implement the palliative care philosophy in different contexts, support improvement work, and to promote that research and development becomes a natural part of everyday activities.
Seminars in palliative care
A central part of the clinical development is our co-created education in palliative care to healthcare professionals. The education involves seminars in palliative care, which can be combined with lectures. These seminars are expected to result in a range of improvement work in the clinical practice.
Seminars in palliative care is an educational concept, with an educational booklet that is based on research and national documents for palliative care.
- The seminars offer time for reflection and opportunity to carry out improvement work in connection to the seminars.
- Themes that are discussed are Palliative care approach, Family members, Existential issues and dying, Symptom management, and Collaborative and dignified palliative care.
- Healthcare professionals with different professions meet in smaller groups of 8–12 people for 2 hours on 5 occasions during six months.
- The seminars are led by one or two leaders whose primary task is to initiate and deepen the participants’ reflections on what palliative care is and how they work with palliative care within their workplaces.
- Up until now, more than 2,000 healthcare professionals have completed the seminars in the Kronoberg County.
By researching the implementation of the seminars and their significance for the care, a sustainable structure for development and research can become reality within the care. Coaching activities have also been established within the center to offer support to the persons leading the seminars.
Learn more about the Seminars in palliative care and the coaching activities (in Swedish)
Seminars in palliative care are registered on Licensbanken.se. (in Swedish)
Palliative forum
Palliative forum is a working group that consists of representatives from Kronoberg County.
The aim is to create a common approach to palliative care in the municipalities and the region.
The palliative forum meets and discusses challenges and improvements within palliative care and how we can create a seamless care for those who are being given care by healthcare professionals from both the municipality and hospitals.
Public engagement
The aim of public engagement is to create arenas for spreading knowledge, dialogue and meetings between people in order to put focus on areas that relate to palliative care. We have an ambition to reach the general public.
We have activities in different places, for instance, libraries and municipal buildings. Activities are of a varying character, for instance, evening lectures on different topics like:
- being a child or teenager when someone in the family is critically ill or dies,
- guilt and shame experiences in family members in palliative care
- how the palliative care in the region is organized.
Organisation
Staff
Centre management
- Anna Sandgren, associate professor, director of the Center, Linnaeus University
- Helene Reimertz, senior physician, development manager, Region Kronoberg
Working group
- Anna Sandgren, associate professor, director of the Center, Linnaeus University
- Carina Werkander Harstäde, registered nurse, Linnaeus University
- Cecilia Ekmark, specialized nurse, Alvesta kommun
- Helene Reimertz, physician, Palliative care specialist, development manager, Region Kronoberg
- Jenny-Ann Johansson, specialized nurse in oncology, Region Kronoberg
- Lisa Granat, doctoral student, Linnaeus University
- Magdalena Nielsen, doctoral student, Linnaeus University
- Petronella Hesslind Mowday, registered nurse, Växjö municipality
- Rebecca Baxter, Postdoc, Linnaeus University
- Sara Christoffersson, specialized assistant nurse, Region Kronoberg
- Sofia Andersson, registered nurse, Postdoc, Linnaeus University
- Susanna Pusa, registered nurse, Postdoc, Linnaeus University
Researchers
Researchers are listed under each respective research project.
Communicator
- Lisiane Heemann, Linnaeus University
Collaborative partners
Center for Collaborative Palliative Care has a number of national and international collaborative partners. A selection is presented below:
National collaboration
- Palliative Institute in Lund (professor Carl-Johan Fürst and colleagues)
- Lund University (professor Gerd Ahlström), and Linköping University (professor Per Nielsen, collaboration in the KUPA project.
- Stockholms sjukhem (professor Peter Strang), collaboration on a project on symptoms, care needs and diagnoses in patients with palliative care needs in acute care hospitals.
- Palliativt kompetenscentrum in Östergötland, Palliativt Kunskapscentrum, Stockholms läns landsting, Palliativt centrum, Sahlgrenska universitetssjukhuset in Gothenburg, and Ersta Sköndal Bräcke Högskola. This collaboration is a network with meetings four times a year. Among other things, a research study on multicultural challenges in palliative care has been carried out.
International collaboration
- Members of the International Collaborative for best care for the dying person
- Lancaster University (professor Elena Semino and Dr. Veronika Koller).
Collaboration on the project on metaphors in palliative care. - Jaen University (Dr. Isabel María López-Medina and Dr. Francisco Pedro García Fernández) and Hospice Cueca, (Dr. Daniel Gutierra) Malaga, Spain. Collaboration on the research study on symptoms, care needs and diagnoses in patients with palliative care needs.
- Grounded Theory Institute, Mill Valley, USA (Dr. Barney Glaser).
Collaboration concerning the research method Classic Grounded Theory. - There are also collaborations between individual researchers at the center and researchers at other higher education institutions, both nationally and internationally.