• Terry Altilio, Shirley Otis-Green, and Constance M Dahlin.
• Department of Pain, Medicine and Palliative Care, Beth Israel Medical Center, 350 East 17th Street, Baird 12, New York, NY 10003, USA. taltilio@chpnet.org
• J Soc Work End Life Palliat Care. 2008 Jan 1; 4 (1): 3-16.

AbstractThe National Consensus Project's (NCP) Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care, published in 2004, defined eight domains of care essential to palliative care clinical practice. The National Quality Forum's (NQF) 2006 document, A National Framework and Preferred Practices for Palliative and Hospice Care Quality: A Consensus Report, based on the NCP's Guidelines, identified 38 evidence-based preferred practices for palliative care. This article demonstrates how the Guidelines and Preferred Practices may be operationalized in practice, focusing specifically on Domain 4 of the Guidelines, "Social Aspects of Care". Domain 4 incorporates many pertinent aspects of hospice and palliative care related to communication and care planning. In particular, emphasized is the inclusion of the patient and family in discussions about ongoing care and creation of care plans that respect the social community of patient and family.

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