Spiritual and existential distress are recognized as key domains of quality in serious illness care. Yet, many palliative care teams lack structured protocols to assess, document, and address these needs consistently. This session introduces clinical team members to evidence-based spiritual care practices that align with national guidelines, including the National Consensus Project Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care and ASCO’s standards. Participants will explore screening tools (e.g., NCCN Distress Thermometer, King et al. questions), spiritual assessment models (e.g., PC-7, ONC-5), and workflow examples for integrating chaplains into advance care planning and interdisciplinary coordination. Case-based exercises will help participants apply protocols to their own team models.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Describe current trends in music therapy visit frequency among hospice providers in the United states. 2) Analyze the patient-centered and organizational factors that influence how often hospice patients receive music therapy. 3) Integrate research findings into clinical practice to support informed decision-making and advocacy for effective hospice music therapy services.