Skip to main content

Building the Workforce We Need to Care for People with Serious Illness: A Workshop

Completed

The number of people requiring care for serious illness is expected to rise significantly over the next several decades as a result of the aging of the population, and the associated increase in the number of people living with multiple complex chronic health conditions. The current workforce, however, is not adequately prepared to meet the rapidly growing demand for services.

On November 7, 2019, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Roundtable on Quality Care for People with Serious Illness hosted a public workshop, Building the Workforce We Need to Care for People with Serious Illness.

Description

An ad hoc planning committee will plan and host a one day public workshop that will examine a key challenge in providing high-quality care to people of all ages facing serious illness: developing and supporting an adequate supply of care team members as well as ensuring that all team members acquire and maintain appropriate training and competencies. The workshop will address challenges and opportunities related to educating, training, and retaining the full spectrum of the workforce for serious illness care, including informal and family caregivers, and may feature presentations on issues such as:

  • Developing and expanding the specialty palliative care workforce
  • Developing primary palliative care skills for all clinicians who treat people with serious illness
  • Training of interdisciplinary care teams including nurses, social workers, and chaplains
  • Training and deployment of community health workers for serious illness care
  • Educating and supporting the informal caregiving workforce: family, faith communities, and others
  • Developing communication skills of workforce team members
  • Increasing the diversity and cultural competencies of the workforce
  • Enhancing workforce resilience and well-being
  • Enabling virtual caregiving and telemedicine for serious illness care

The planning committee will develop the agenda for the workshop sessions, select and invite speakers and discussants and moderate the discussions. A proceedings of the presentations and discussions at the workshop will be prepared by a designated rapporteur in accordance with institutional guidelines.

Contributors

Sponsors

American Academy Of Hospice And Palliative Medicine

American Cancer Society

American Geriatrics Society

Anthem

Ascension Health

Association of Professional Chaplains

Association of Rehabilitation Nurses

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina

Blue Cross Blue Shield Association

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Cambia Health Solutions

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Coalition to Transform Advanced Care

Department of Health and Human Services

Excellus BlueCross BlueShield

Federation of American Hospitals

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association

Humana

Kaiser Permanente

National Academy of Medicine

National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care

National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization

National Institute of Nursing Research

National Palliative Care Research Center

National Patient Advocate Foundation

New York Academy of Medicine

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute

Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network

Supportive Care Coalition

The California State University Institute for Palliative Care

The Greenwall Foundation

The John A. Hartford Foundation

Staff

Laurene Graig

Lead

Subscribe to Email from the National Academies
Keep up with all of the activities, publications, and events by subscribing to free updates by email.