Delivering Palliative Care Education where there is Little Concept of Palliative Care: The Cultural Challenges

Delivering Palliative Care Education where there is Little Concept of Palliative Care: The Cultural Challenges

There are significant inequalities in the provision of basic healthcare in the world. Over a billion people worldwide lack access to even the most basic facilities, often because there are no trained workers.

Whilst delivering education in these circumstances is challenging, the transferable skills learnt can have far-reaching benefits in other areas of healthcare service provision. With sensitivity and humility, palliative care education can
be delivered that is both culturally sensitive and relevant. In 2016 PRIME supported more than 100 tutors visiting 25 different countries and teaching over 4300 healthcare workers in a variety of topics.

We may live in a culture where palliative care has been established for a number of decades. Most of our colleagues and
many of our patients embrace the benefits of palliative care in advanced symptomatic disease. Indeed society respects palliative care. We see advances in diagnosis and treatment leading to prolonged survival.

We teach about palliative care happening ‘early in the course of illness, in conjunction
with other therapies that are intended to prolong life’. We recognize that we do not have all the answers and may therefore hesitate to volunteer. Maybe we are questioning how transferable our models of care and education are?

There are numerous pitfalls for the progression of palliative care for the unwary and uninformed. Here are some of the important questions we need to consider. Some may not be answerable until we have arrived. Many appear obvious and others less so.

Palliat Med Hosp Care Open J. 2017; SE(1): S39-S43. doi: 10.17140/PMHCOJ-SE-1-109