Lack of trained health professionals is one of the key barriers to hospice and palliative care development worldwide.
The aim of our education and training work is to promote palliative care as an integral part of every health professional’s role and the requirement for palliative care training in all health care curricula. Our work has included
- The development of an online training course "Introduction to palliative care" which is currently being piloted
- The development of a second course "Introduction to Palliative Care for non-clinicians" is proving very popular
- The endorsement and development of resources such as the Palliative Care Toolkit and Training Manual
These introductory courses are designed to lead into more comprehensive palliative care training. The opportunity to discuss aspects of palliative care on-line allows busy practitioners to take part in a course at a time that suits their working commitments and lifestyle.
The next objective of the workgroup is to create a database of palliative care training offered worldwide to respond to requests for further training by health care workers.
The workgroup also plans to identify and liaise with key palliative care trainers within national hospice and palliative care associations and Educational Institutions who will work towards including palliative care training in all health care curricula and training of health care workers in the workplace.
An additional objective is to work with the WPCA Advocacy workgroup to influence educational institutions worldwide to include palliative care training in all health training curricula.
The education and training group is chaired by Dr. Liz Gwyther of the Hospice and Palliative Care Association of South Africa.
For more information about our education and training work, contact us.
