Understanding Surgeon Engagement with Palliative Care Practices for Seriously Ill Patients

OBJECTIVE: To explore surgical clinicians' understanding of and activities related to palliative care (PC) in major elective surgery among seriously ill older adults. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Despite professional standards and guidelines, PC remains infrequently utilized among seriously ill older adults undergoing major elective surgery. METHODS: We conducted observations of clinic encounters and interviews with clinicians at seven clinical sites within a single regional health system. Using deductive analysis, we characterized patterns of PC delivery for seriously ill older surgical patients during clinic visits and identified opportunities to support PC integration in surgery. RESULTS: Across 207 patient encounters and 15 clinician interviews (20% medical oncology and PC, 13% surgical oncology, urology, and orthopedics, and 7% in rehabilitative medicine) we found that clinicians in multiple surgical disciplines provided care aligned with PC, despite many surgeons endorsing a belief that PC and surgery were in conflict. Observations further revealed that surgeons redirected conversation to biomedical problems over psychosocial issues even when patients raised subjects like spiritual or psychosocial distress. Opportunities to help alleviate tension between PC and surgery include reframing of the "fixer" identity to include non-surgical approaches and underscoring the overlap between the aims of surgery and PC. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest opportunities to align surgical practice and PC to more comprehensively address needs of seriously ill older surgical patients.