Core Concepts in Palliative Care – All Health Professionals
Palliative care is a multidisciplinary team approach designed to ease suffering and improve quality of life for patients with serious illness. This transformative type of care is most effective when each member of the team is grounded in the principles and skills that are the backbone of whole-person, patient-centered care for patients and families experiencing life-limiting disease.
Originally created in partnership with one of the largest healthcare organizations in the United States, Core Concepts in Palliative Care — All Health Professionals provides healthcare professionals across a variety of disciplines with a comprehensive framework for understanding palliative care, and the strategies it utilizes to reduce suffering, manage symptoms and improve quality of life for patients and families with serious illness.
Studies show palliative care training can improve patient outcomes, reduce hospital re-admissions, lead to more effective decision-making, and boost employee satisfaction and retention. This course is appropriate for all disciplines and is included in other Core Concepts courses focused on chaplains, social workers, and nurses. The curriculum is self-paced and can be completed on your own schedule, whenever is most convenient.
This course is part of the Core Concepts in Palliative Care series. Learn more. |
What You’ll Learn
- Communication – the art and soul of palliative care
- Working with diversity through inclusivity
- Spiritual, existential dimensions of palliative care
- Attending to suffering
- Death, loss and grief
- Bioethics
- Self-care
What You’ll Earn
- Compare key similarities and differences between hospice care and palliative care
- Articulate the difference between scope of practice and scope of competence with regard to a transdisciplinary palliative care team
- Describe the importance of presence in palliative care communication and its role in responding effectively to distress
- Identify common communication barriers in palliative care and describe ways to overcome them
- Recognize that spirituality and existential concerns influence comfort, anxiety, and outcomes, and how specific interventions can address distress
- Learn sources of suffering, and understand the assessments and treatments available
- Identify fears and emotions around imminent death, and strategies to help patients, families, and peers prepare
- Recognize ways that palliative care teams can be helpful to clients as they cope with their experiences of loss and grief
- Define and create a context for self-care in the work of palliative care teams
- Identify risks and strengths or protective factors for cultivating resilience among palliative care teams and clinicians
- Apply holistic and practical self-care skills as a benefit to individuals, teams and patients
Completion and Refunds
In order to complete this course and obtain a certificate, you must view the course in its entirety, correctly answer all case studies and quiz/test questions (as appropriate) and complete the evaluation. You will have 90 days to access this course from the date of purchase. No refunds are given for self-paced courses.