Palliative care teams and individual behaviours

This paper is the second in a series that will examine the management of innovation by cross-functional, multidisciplinary patient care teams in palliative care. Two further outcomes of this research are reported here. The first is that within palliative care a number of distinct individual behaviours are identified that act as foundations for the successful development and application of innovative practices by multidisciplinary teams. The second is that interviews with multidisciplinary palliative care teams in case studies in Australia confirm the existence and use of these behaviours. Individual behaviours within these teams are found to fall into two groups: those used by palliative care professionals when working with patients and patient-based carers; and those used by professionals when dealing with each other away from patients. The purpose of both groups is to generate useful valid information, knowledge and learning that can be transferred across boundaries regardless of boundary type or location.