Teamwork is well accepted as a central instrument for the comprehensive approach of palliative care. Non-hierarchical structure, competence in the own area of work, estimation of the other team members and high esteem for the team work are characteristics of the palliative care team. The Department of Palliative Medicine has been newly established at the University Hospital of Aachen, an inpatient unit is available since September 2003. With the formation of the multiprofessional team a vast range of different backgrounds and know-how has been merged. Different stages of integration in the team have been established with central members, liaison and counseling from other services and volunteers. Team forming procedures as well as the organisation of working procedures still are in an initial stage. Finding a group identity and a collective strategy is of major importance for effective cooperation, especially in the forming phase. This is closely related to the ability of the team to get involved in emotional learning procedures. On the other hand team forming may build up pressure towards group conformity with typical risks such as loss of profile of those team members with specific expert knowledge or loss of tolerance for diversity for example for different priorities in the therapeutical approach. This raises the question about the decisive factors of a good palliative care team and what expectations team members as well as patients will have towards the team. The study represents a case report based on a qualitative action-research oriented approach. First results will be presented and analyzed critically. Instruments of qualitative research such as semi-structured interviews and participant observation as well as specific interventions such as a consens workshop towards the common operational aims of the team will be used.