Facilitators and barriers for interdisciplinary collaboration in pediatric palliative care: A cross-sectional survey

Background: Pediatric palliative care requires input from various healthcare professionals to meet the changing needs of children and their families. Effective interdisciplinary collaboration across care settings is essential to ensure continuity and quality of care. Aim: To identify facilitators and barriers for interdisciplinary collaboration within pediatric palliative care as perceived by diverse healthcare professionals. Design: Cross-sectional survey in which participants reflected on their most recent pediatric palliative care case, using the Index of Interdisciplinary Collaboration, and reported their satisfaction with care coordination, continuity, and quality in this case. Setting/participants: Physicians, nurses, and paramedical professionals in home care, regional, and academic hospitals who had provided palliative care within the previous 3 years. As pediatric palliative care may extend over a longer period, participants reflected on collaboration during the entire care process for a now-deceased child. Results: In total, 208 healthcare professionals participated. Fifteen facilitators and six barriers were identified. Facilitators included role clarity, task flexibility, family participation, and the perceived importance and added value of interdisciplinary collaboration and included active collaboration with home care nurses, Children’s Palliative Care Teams and lead clinicians. Barriers related mainly to insufficient communication, limited evaluation, and inadequate organization of interdisciplinary collaboration. Satisfaction with care coordination, continuity and quality was high. Conclusion: Improving interdisciplinary collaboration in pediatric palliative care requires strategies that strengthen organizational and managerial structures, while actively engaging both experienced and less experienced professionals across different care settings. Enhancing awareness of each other’s roles, needs, and capacities is essential to foster more effective interdisciplinary collaboration.