Insights and experiences of chaplain interns and social work interns on palliative care teams

AbstractInterdisciplinary palliative care teams provide critical, comprehensive end-of-life care, although the accumulated literature points toward barriers that impede their effectiveness. The current phenomenological qualitative study presents perceptions of chaplaincy interns (N = 24) and social work interns (N = 23) after a semester-long end-of-life clinical training experience with interdisciplinary palliative care teams. Analysis of the end of semester reflections resulted in seven themes, which are fairly consistent with the literature base. The described experiential learning and reflections in the current study are powerful and can inform how to prepare practitioners for teamwork and compassionate end-of-life care.