Delays in Palliative Care Referral Among Surgical Patients: Perspectives of Surgical Residents Across the State of Michigan

Abstract

Context

Palliative care services (PCS) are underutilized and frequently delayed among surgical patients. Surgical residents often serve at the forefront for patient issues, including conducting conversations regarding prognosis and goals of care.

Objectives

This qualitative study identifies critical barriers to palliative care referral among seriously ill surgical patients from the perspective of surgical residents.

Methods

We conducted semistructured interviews with surgical residents (n = 18) across the state of Michigan, which focused on experiences with seriously ill surgical patients and PCS. Inductive thematic analysis was used to establish themes based on the research objectives and data collected.

Results

Four dominant themes of resident-perceived barriers to palliative care referral were identified: 1) challenges with prognostication, 2) communication barriers, 3) respect for the surgical hierarchy, and 4) surgeon mentality. Residents consistently expressed challenges in predicting patient outcomes, and verbalizing this to both attendings and families augmented this uncertainty in seeking PCS. Communicative challenges included managing discordant provider opinions and the stigma associated with PCS. Finally, residents perceived that an attending surgeon's decisive authority and mentality negatively influenced the delivery of PCS.

Conclusions

Among resident trainees, unpredictable patient outcomes led to uncertainty in the timing and appropriateness of palliative care referral and further complicated communicating plans of care. Residents perceived and relied on the attending surgeon as the ultimate decision maker, wherein the surgeon's sense of responsibility to the patient was identified as a significant barrier to PCS referral. Further studies are needed to test surgeon-specific interventions to improve access to and delivery of PCS.