What Every Chaplain Needs to Know About Palliative Care
Palliative care is specialized care, an extra level of support, for people with serious or chronic illnesses. Appropriate from point of diagnosis onward, it focuses on relieving the symptoms and stress of a serious illness, going hand-in-hand with curative treatment and improving quality of life for both the patient and their family.
Spirituality can help people come to terms with their illness and cope with suffering. Chaplains working in hospitals, health systems, and other care settings are expected to provide care that meets the needs of each patient and family caregiver they serve. Yet despite the escalating needs, the majority of chaplains have never received sufficient training to provide a basic level of palliative care to those they serve.
This self-paced course is approximately one and a half hours in length and provides an introduction to palliative care. The course is designed to create an awareness of palliative care principles and it provides information and tools critical to chaplains.
What You’ll Learn
The course walks you through a comprehensive overview of palliative care including:
- Knowledge of Palliative Care
- The Palliative Care Team
- Delivery of Care
- Settings of Care
- Communication
- Increasing timely access to quality palliative care
What You’ll Earn
- Differentiate among “usual” care, palliative care and hospice care
- Identify the role of each member of the palliative care team and the benefits of interdisciplinary care
- Describe unique elements of the palliative care delivery process
- Recognize the value of palliative care in specific care settings
- Conduct an advance care planning conversation
- Assess and identify patients who would benefit from palliative care
Get the Brochure!
The rise in the number of individuals living with chronic or serious conditions has led to a growing recognition of the value of palliative care. The What Every Chaplain Needs to Know About Palliative Care course teaches all chaplains about palliative care and how to incorporate this awareness into their daily practice in all care settings. It also teaches chaplains when to refer a patient to palliative care experts. By integrating palliative care skills into their daily work, chaplains are able to optimize patient quality of life and provide comfort to patients and family members.
Whether your organization has a dedicated palliative care team, contracts with another organization to offer palliative care, is considering starting a palliative care program, or is interested in integrating the principles of palliative care into your practice, this course is a critical part of your education. What Every Chaplain Needs to Know About Palliative Care will help you understand the benefits of palliative care, how it is different from usual care and hospice, and teach you how to talk to patients and care providers about palliative care.
What Every Chaplain Needs to Know about Palliative Care includes case scenarios, multi-media content, extensive resources and multiple tools to enrich the online learning experience. This course is one of a series of courses designed to teach the entire organization about palliative care. Learn more about the What Every… Needs to Know About Palliative Care series and maximize your investment in palliative care.
Course Authors
- Sue Wintz, MDiv, BCC
- Kathy Brandt, MS
- Carol Lovci, RN, MSN
- Monique Parrish, DrPH, MPH, LCSW
- Karl Steinberg, MD, CMD
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.