I am honoured to be co-presenting “Practical Tips: Lessons from the Front Line”, the final session in the National Community-Based Primary Palliative Care Community of Practice (CoP) series. This Continuing Professional Development is FREE for all health care professionals is part of The Palliative Care ECHO Project led by Pallium Canada.
This community of practice focuses on supporting primary care clinicians to integrate primary palliative care in their practices. It is geared towards interprofessional primary health care providers across Canada. Each session is accredited by the College of Family Physicians of Canada.
This is the final session in the second series, which includes 11 sessions taking place on a bi-weekly basis. All webinars are recorded and available for playback. Topics include:
Pain: Beyond the Basics: November 9, 2022
Communication: Part 1: November 23, 2022
Communication: Part 2: December 7, 2022
Palliative Care and Substance Use Disorders: January 18, 2023
GI Symptoms in Palliative Care: February 1, 2023
Delirium: February 15, 2023
Spiritual Care and Rituals Around Death and Dying: March 1, 2023
Palliative Sedation: March 15, 2023
Grief and Bereavement: Beyond the Basics: April 12, 2023
Practical Tips: Lessons from the Front Line: April 26, 2023 from 1–2:00 p.m. ET
Interested in becoming a part of this FREE COP? Visit The Palliative Care ECHO Project
COVID-19 Response – Free, Online Palliative Care Modules from Pallium Canada
Enhance your knowledge, skills, and practice in providing high-quality palliative care with these free, self-directed modules.
Pallium, in collaboration with the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), is providing access to essential education on palliative care for all health care professionals in response to this unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. In these difficult times, it is more important than ever that all health care providers are equipped with the essential skills to provide compassionate, palliative care to patients in need.
Available modules
These modules are self-directed and completed at your own pace:
Taking Ownership
Advance Care Planning
Decision-Making
Managing Dyspnea
Palliative Sedation
Last Days and Hours
Additional Information
Pallium and CMA are making these 6 Learning Essential Approaches to Palliative Care (LEAP) modules available online for free to all health care professionals for 3 months (March 30 – June 30, 2020). These modules will help provide health care teams with an introduction to the palliative care approach focused on the important knowledge and skills required during the COVID-19 pandemic response. The modules are currently only available in English.
The Pallium Palliative Pocketbook can be found here. This best-selling book is a practical, one-stop resource with easily accessible information to help non-specialist physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and social workers provide a palliative care approach when needed.
Additional learning opportunities to help you expand your knowledge in palliative care can be found on Our Courses page, including our newly available LEAP Online course.
Have any questions? Email anytime at: info@pallium.ca
Source: Pallium Canada
Professional Competencies with the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University
Thrilled to be teaching Professional Competencies with the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University.
"In Pre-Clinical studies, Professional Competencies (Pro Comp) runs in parallel to the Medical Foundations. Groups of 8-10 students work with a pair of facilitators, one MD and one a clinician from a different discipline. The groups stay together for the entirety of Pre-Clinical, meeting every Tuesday morning for 3 hours. They explore material covering seven domains: effective communication, medical decision-making, moral reasoning and ethical judgement, population health, professionalism and self-awareness and self-care, interprofessional practice and social, cultural and humanistic dimensions of health." via https://mdprogram.mcmaster.ca/mcmaster-md-program/what-is-compass2/pre-clinical/pro-comp
#Health Sentinel: Lack of #knowledge about #palliative care limiting its benefits to #patients, #hospitals. #hpm
"When Gerald’s physicians discussed options and next steps, palliative care was among them. Rozanne, a retired teacher, was familiar with hospice but unaware of palliative care as a specialized service.
'I didn’t have a clue,' she said, but added that through those services, 'our every need was met.'
Multiple studies show that, compared to awareness of hospice, “There’s significantly less familiarity with palliative care,” said Dr. Lyle Fettig, director of Indiana University School of Medicine’s Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship program centered in Indianapolis…
Palliative care, according to the New York-based Center to Advance Palliative Care, is appropriate for any age individual and at any stage of a serious illness, whether that illness is cancer or a chronic condition, such as heart or lung disease. The goal is to improve quality of life for both patient and family through a holistic, interdisciplinary team approach”.
I'm Trying to Die Here. ~ Rev. Dr. Carla Cheatham
"Our goal is to maximize quality of life for whatever quantity naturally remains for everyone involved. Knowing that we are the interlopers, we strive to adapt to the personality and culture of the person receiving hospice as well as that of their entire family. We pay attention. We listen to stories. We pick up queues and share them with our team members so we can all work to provide as little intrusion as possible as guests in the home (whether “home” is one’s own or a room in a facility)".
Patients aren’t told that death is near until too late. We can do better.
"Oncologists, cardiologists, and other specialists can often predict a patient’s rate of decline based on a specific disease, Obermeyer said. But patients, particularly those who are elderly, often suffer from more than one serious illness that make it more difficult to predict when they’re near death. So a pulmonologist might treat someone’s pneumonia, for instance, without recognizing it signals a broader decline".
The Way Forward: An Integrated Palliative Approach to Care.
"Imagine a time when hospice palliative care is available to Canadians when and where they need it; where living well until death is the goal of care".
Palliative Care Sooner for Patients But Also for Medical Professionals.
"Changing culture is a process. Awareness and understanding of palliative care is often limited, yet the benefits are discernible from better quality of life to care more consistent with patient preferences, to more recent data indicating improved survival. My experience with palliative medicine as a first-year medical student has made me realize how vital palliative care education could be for all medical students".