Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39871886›Full record

ArticlePalliative care and social practice2025

Integration of social work into specialist palliative home service.

Janice Lee Wartchow, Stefan Bär, Bernd Alt-Epping, Christina Gerlach

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Palliative care and social practice, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Janice Lee WartchowHeidelberg University Hospital - Department of Palliative Medicine, INF 305, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg 69120, Germany.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5225-7282
Stefan BärMax Weber Institute of Sociology, Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Germany.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4475-4579
Bernd Alt-EppingHeidelberg University Hospital - Department of Palliative Medicine, Germany.
Christina GerlachHeidelberg University Hospital - Department of Palliative Medicine, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: The specialist palliative home service (SAPV) federal framework contract for adults, to be enacted in Germany until 2028, does not legally mandate the hiring of a third professional group beyond specialist nurses and physicians, although palliative care embraces the psychosocial dimension and an interprofessional approach. Objectives: This article aims to explore the role of medical staff in integrating social work (SW) into SAPV. Design: Qualitative case study. Methods: The study utilised theoretical and qualitative quota sampling to explore barriers to integrating SW into SAPV-teams, ensuring diverse perspectives. Sequential analysis was applied to uncover collective interpretations, generating and validating interpretive hypotheses directly from the data. Results: Four physicians and four nurses from the SAPV-team based at Heidelberg University Hospital participated. The medical staff's attributions to SW significantly impact its integration into SAPV. Their perception of the SW profession determines the extent and manner of its integration into daily practices. Attributions on SW in SAPV as determined by nurses and physicians were social-medical knowledge, counselling, being a core competence in SAPV and similarities to the profession of psychologists. In the examined case, the integration was effective, and there was a desire for an increased presence of SW because there is still a lack of their working hours, and the medical staff wished for the social workers' presence during home visits. Conclusion: This study highlights that SAPV requires SW to be effective, nonetheless, not being considered in the new federal contract to allocate resources. Possible barriers against the integration of SW within the real-world clinical practice of palliative care should be further investigated in future studies by involving social workers' and healthcare managers' experiences and strategies to understand why the employment of social workers in SAPV is progressing slowly and inform strategies to enhance their integration.

Indexed as

homecareintegrated careinterprofessionalpalliative caresocial workspecialist palliative care

Identifiers

PMID39871886
PMCPMC11770773

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.