Injectable Opioid Use in Home Palliative Care: A Pilot Survey of Multidisciplinary Role Sharing and Readiness.

BACKGROUND/

OBJECTIVES

Injectable opioid use in home palliative care requires multiprofessional coordination, but regional implementation data are limited. We conducted a pilot survey to describe experience, task sharing, difficulties, and future willingness.

METHODS

We performed an anonymous web-based cross-sectional survey of multidisciplinary professionals involved in community-based palliative care in a Japanese regional health care area.

RESULTS

Among 159 respondents, 117 (73.6%) had prior opioid experience for cancer pain, and 73/117 (62.4%) had prior injectable opioid experience. Initiation was mainly attributed to hospital physicians, maintenance dose management to hospital and clinic/home care physicians, and solution or cassette exchange to nurses. Difficulties when starting or modifying injectable opioids were reported by 27/73 respondents (37.0%). Future willingness was higher with prior experience (41/72, 56.9%) than without prior experience (7/83, 8.4%).

CONCLUSION

This pilot survey suggests that home injectable opioid practice is a multidisciplinary workflow with an experience-related readiness gap, supporting broader regional evaluation and implementation-focused support.