A national agenda for social work research in palliative and end-of-life care.

Background: Social work practitioners have the potential to make meaningful contributions to improving palliative and end-of-life care because of their work in varied and divergent practice settings across the lifespan, their role in addressing mental health needs, grief and psychosocial aspects of well-being, and their commitment to promoting culturally competent, effective, and humane care, particularly for the most vulnerable and oppressed members of society. The federal government and several national and professional institutes have called for steps to increase the participation of social work researchers as well as to improve the quality, quantity, and dissemination of social work research.

Objective: This paper proposes a national agenda for social work research in palliative and end-of-life care.

Design: The agenda was developed by a multimethod effort that included an extensive analysis of the literature, discussions with a purposive national sample of social work leaders in palliative or end-of-life care, and consideration of established national research priorities.

Results: Eleven domains of palliative and end-of-life care and their related research objectives were identified. Their relevance to the mission and value base of the profession and to established national research priorities is highlighted.

Conclusions: This research agenda should serve to stimulate social work research initiatives to improve palliative and end-of-life care, and ultimately inform direct practice, policy and professional education.