Leadership Skills in Palliative Care
Effective palliative care leaders balance the needs of their patients and families, teams, organizations, and external partners. Use this toolkit to draft a strategic plan for delivery of high-quality palliative care, support your team to execute on the plan, build your standing as a leader, and connect with fellow palliative care leaders.
What’s in the Toolkit
Strategic Planning
If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter how you get there. The strategic plan articulates your mission and how your program will accomplish it. It is an essential roadmap and communication tool for your team, organizational leaders, and referrers.
The National Consensus Project (NCP) Clinical Practice Guidelines are the national standard for high quality palliative care. National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care, 2018.
Evaluating patient need, service requirements, and stakeholder priorities for the inpatient program.
Evaluating patient need, service requirements, care settings, and stakeholder priorities for the community-based palliative care program.
Strategic planning for new or veteran programs, and a framework for identification of barriers to team efficiency and team health.
Five sample palliative care mission statements defining the aims of the program. Center to Advance Palliative Care, 2015.
Example shared by Lee Health, 2012.
Shared by Interim HealthCare/CarePoint, 2017
Leadership Networking and Mentoring
Connect with peers and field experts on CAPC’s faculty: just-in-time problem solving, shared advice, new ideas, and peer mentoring.
Small-group consulting calls with national subject matter experts.
Palliative Care Leadership Centers (PCLC) offer hospitals two days of in-person, customized operational training and one year of mentoring.
Develop Leadership Skills
Online and in-person skill-building resources for palliative care leaders from all disciplines.
Foundational guidance for leaders to integrate diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging principles into health care organizations.
In this on-demand webinar, Donna Stevens, MHA, and a panel of palliative care leaders will explore the benefits of consistent, honest feedback offered in different formats.
In this on demand webinar, A Leadership Panel: Creating Positive Change Amidst Chaos and Uncertainty, attendees will learn how to lead positive change.
In this webinar, presenters will use a pediatric palliative care program as a case example, leading participants through the critical steps of an effective change management initiative.
Hire and onboard your staff, manage program operations, and ensure a healthy high-functioning team using this toolkit.
Evaluating patient need, service requirements, and stakeholder priorities for the inpatient program.
Evaluating patient need, service requirements, care settings, and stakeholder priorities for the community-based palliative care program.
Strategic planning for new or veteran programs, and a framework for identification of barriers to team efficiency and team health.
Advancing hospice and palliative medicine and palliative care physician leadership.
Educational pathways for physician leadership for all specialties.
Palliative care nursing leadership and professional development.
Presenters: Constance Dahlin, APN-BC, ACHPN, FPCN, FAAN and Lolita Melhado, PhD, ARNP, FNP-BC. CAPC Seminar, 2016.
Worksheet to accompany "Essential Nurse Leadership Skills" Presentation.
Palliative care social work leadership and professional development.
This document can help you respond to questions from senior leaders and decision-makers as you work to secure financial support for your palliative care program.
Leadership is critical during a crisis to stabilize and deliver quality care, but also to ensure the team and organization are thinking and planning beyond the crisis. CAPC has gathered and synthesized advice and tips from program leaders from across the country to help provide leadership guidance during crises.
A list of helpful books, articles, and references focused on leadership during a crisis.
Make the Case for the Value of Palliative Care
Articulating the value of the palliative care program to your stakeholders is the key to resources and support.
Tools to make the case for palliative care resources and financial partnerships, including the palliative care evidence base and downloadable tools for presenting the case.
Resources for palliative care programs working with payers and other financial collaborators, including contracting resources.
Building and Supporting an Effective Team
Use this toolkit to hire, onboard, retain, and support a healthy team.
Hire and onboard your staff, manage program operations, and ensure a healthy high-functioning team using this toolkit.
Strategic planning for new or veteran programs, and a framework for identification of barriers to team efficiency and team health.
