• Palliative Care Leadership CentersSM Training and Mentoring
• CAPC Campus OnlineTM Palliative Care Courses – Training On Demand
• CAPC Training Seminars
• Other Education and Training In Palliative Care
• Clinical Aspects of Palliative Care

Palliative Care Leadership CentersTM Training and Mentoring (PCLC)

The PCLCs provide intensive two-day training and a full year of mentoring in how to design and launch a successful program. The hands-on training is delivered by leading professionals in the field and is tailored to the institution's size, culture and needs.
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CAPC Campus OnlineTM Palliative Care Courses – Training On Demand

Earn CME and CE credits – anywhere, anytime! CAPC Campus Online TM is the e-learning space where you′ll find courses covering all the structural, operational and financial essentials of palliative care program development and sustainability. Our asynchronous e-learning site offers you complete flexibility because it is available when you are available, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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CAPC Training Seminars

CAPC offers comprehensive training seminars geared to helping health care professionals develop palliative care programs in hospitals. Seminars provide practical information on drafting financial and business plans, choosing organizational and staffing models, marketing the advantages of a palliative care program internally and externally, and securing the clinical and financial outcomes data required for a successful and sustainable program.
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Other Education and Training In Palliative Care

The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) is an organization of physicians and other medical professionals dedicated to excellence in and advancement of palliative medicine through prevention and relief of patient and family suffering by providing education and clinical practice standards, fostering research, facilitating personal and professional development, and by public policy advocacy. They sponsor an annual meeting as well as two advanced content courses per year. These courses provide hospice and palliative professionals with an update on current practice and a basis for review for the American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Certification Examination.

Experienced and medically skilled palliative care teams can both improve the quality of the care of severely ill patients and help control the costs of that care. AAHPM offers a focused clinical experience at selected hospice and palliative care sites across the country to physicians working in palliative care who seek to gain insight into alternative models or venues of care, delivery systems, or therapies.

Licensed physicians who have a foundational knowledge about hospice and palliative medicine are eligible for this clinical experience. While not a substitute for a formal fellowship training program, the AAHPM Clinical Scholars Program offers a one week observership with a clinical team, under the supervision of physician faculty at the training site; 12-15 hours of faculty mentorship in the form of quarterly consults; one year of participation in discussion groups led by faculty from the training sites; and a peer network for ongoing discussion.

The American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (ABHPM) was formed in 1995 to establish and implement standards for the certification of physicians practicing hospice and palliative medicine. ABHPM creates and administers the certifying examination, works to implement high standards for training, and contributes to setting the standards for excellence in palliative medicine. ABHPM provides a list of accredited fellowship programs.

The American Medical Directors Association (AMDA) offers a Curriculum on Palliative Care in Long Term Care, an in-depth course that addresses pain and symptom management, as well as other end-of-life care issues. The program contents are designed to assist physicians, the interdisciplinary care team, and long-term care facilities to ensure greater comfort and less distress for patients at the end of life. It is offered in two modules to provide flexibility in delivering content. Topics may be offered individually or in half-day sessions by module.

Module 1 includes an overview of the evolution of palliative care in the nursing home, pain assessment and treatment, symptom management, communication and setting goals of therapy. Module 2 features ethics and decision-making in long term care, artificial nutrition and hydration, emotional and spiritual needs, nursing home hospice interface, organizational change, including barriers to end-of-life care and creation of systems and policies that forward the goals of palliative care.

The curriculum is available online at www.amda.com/order under teaching kits.

A comprehensive training in end-of-life care that brings together the ancient wisdom of the Buddhist tradition as presented in Sogyal Rinpoche's The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying with the knowledge, skills and best practices of hospice and palliative care - presented by Rigpa's Spiritual Care Program and Naropa University's School of Extended Studies. Certificates are earned after a comprehensive three-day training program.

A national educational program to improve end-of-life care for cancer patients and their families, will be held on April 15-17, 2004, in Pasadena CA. DELEtCC is funded by the National Cancer Institute and presented by City of Hope National Medical Center, with Principal Investigator Marcia Grant, RN, DNSc, FAAN and Co-Investigator Betty Ferrell, PhD, FAAN. Institutional two-person interdisciplinary teams (physician, registered nurse, social worker, and/or other healthcare providers) will have the opportunity to develop and expand their knowledge and expertise in the clinical practice and teaching of end-of-life/palliative cancer care. For information and application, please visit the website at http://deletcc.coh.org or call/e-mail Jo Hanson, RN, MSN, OCN, (626) 359-8111 x63108, jhanson@coh.org .

End-of-Life Care Programs, The George Washington University

The End-of-Life Care Programs will prepare you to enter or advance in the interdisciplinary, challenging, and rewarding field of end-of-life care.

The programs were developed to offer core courses in the end-of-care field that provide insights, best practices and expertise in three broad areas of study: grief and bereavement, the business of dying and spiritual care. In addition, students in the programs are given the freedom to choose from an array of elective courses to meet their individual and professional needs and provide opportunities to:

• Broaden knowledge, gain new insights and experience in the care of individuals and their families involving end of life issues;
• Network with fellow bereavement support and end-of-life care providers around the nation from a range of multidisciplinary professional backgrounds;
• Develop pathways for career advancement; and
• Become leaders and innovators in the field.

The Education on Palliative and End-of-Life Care (EPEC) Project educates professionals through several venues. i) EPEC "Becoming an EPEC Trainer" conferences prepare trainers to teach the EPEC Curriculum. ii) EPEC Professional Development conferences provide advanced medical teaching skills. iii) EPEC Online Learning is a web based curriculum that teaches clinical content. iv) Specialty EPEC conferences and materials provide curriculum modified to the needs of Oncologists and Geriatricians. v) International EPEC provides training for non-US colleagues.

The EPEC Curriculum combines didactic sessions, videotape presentations, interactive discussions, and practical exercises. It teaches fundamental palliative care skills in comprehensive assessment, symptom management, communication, ethical decision-making, psychosocial aspects of care, and includes appendices on areas such as drug choices and mechanisms for reimbursement for services. These materials and their take-home pearls are designed to be used by EPEC Trainers with interdisciplinary audiences.

EPEC Online Learning is a project of the Education in Palliative and End of Life Care (EPEC) Project at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and is sponsored by the office of Continuing Medical Education at the Feinberg School of Medicine. The target audience is physicians and other health care professionals who are engaged in palliative care education and clinical practice. 

The complete EPEC Curriculum is now available as Online Learning for CME credit. EPEC Online Learning provides convenient access to learning the core skills of palliative care. It teaches skills in communication, ethical decision-making, symptom management, psychosocial considerations, and palliative care.

The innovative End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program is an advanced training that offers an unparalleled opportunity for personal and professional development. Our world-class faculty includes outstanding leaders like Rachel Naomi Remen MD, Frank Ostaseski, Charlie Garfield PhD and others. Primarily designed for healthcare professionals, the program utilizes experiential learning to develop the psychosocial and spiritual dimensions of care. Participants commute to the San Francisco Bay Area for six residential sessions offered over a nine-month period. Pragmatic application of the course is supported by regular phone mentoring with faculty and fieldwork in the participant’s local community. Graduates join a national network of dedicated peers encouraging creative solutions as educators, advocates, and guides to the dying. For more information visit: www.mettainstitute.org or call 415-331-9600.

The End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) project is a comprehensive, national education program to improve end-of-life care by nurses, and is funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. ELNEC is a consortium of many organizations that are represented on the ELNEC Advisory Board. This diverse group insures that the ELNEC project brings together leading nursing groups and perspectives to form a collaborative approach to improve end-of-life education and care. The ELNEC core curriculum has been developed through the work of highly qualified subject matter experts serving as consultants, with extensive input from the Advisory Board and reviewers. Courses are designed to prepare educators to disseminate this important subject matter into nursing schools and health care agencies.

This curriculum, funded in part by NIH, the Dept of Veterans Affairs and Stanford University School of Medicine, has nine stand alone modules. Each module is designed to provide at least one hour worth of instruction. The curriculum also has a list of resources and references designed to provide many hours of further self directed learning. Highlights include:

• World class authors
• Rich multi media ( video cases, animations, interactive exercises)
• Quizzes, pre test and post tests
• Clinical pearls, practical tips, flow charts and tables

The End-of-Life/ Palliative Education Resource Center is intended to support individuals involved in the design, implementation, and/or evaluation of EOL/Palliative education for medical students, residents, practicing physicians, and other health care professionals. Their website has been designed for use by medical school course/clerkship directors, residency and continuing education program directors, medical faculty, community preceptors, or other professionals who are (or will be) involved in providing EOL instruction to health care professionals in training.

Program in Palliative Care Education and Practice (May 5-12, 2009 & November 10-17, 2009).

The purpose of the Hospice and Palliative Nursing Association (HPNA) is to exchange information, experiences, and ideas; to promote understanding of the specialties of hospice and palliative nursing; and to study and promote hospice and palliative nursing research. HPNA Approved Educators are nurse educators who have completed the Clinical Review for the Generalist Hospice and Palliative Nurse and/or the Clinical Review for the Hospice and Palliative Nursing Assistant (Train-the-Trainer) workshops that prepared them to teach hospice and palliative content. HPNA provides a list of palliative care educators in special topics by state.

The Northwest AIDS Education and Training Center (Northwest AETC), located at the University of Washington's Center for Health Education and Research, offers continuing education on HIV treatment to doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician's assistants, dental professionals, and clinical pharmacists in a 5-state region: Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana. Northwest AETC offers regional training, clinical consultation, and preceptorships throughout the Northwest region.

NYU School of Social Work is offering a Post Master's Certificate in Palliative and End of Life Care for practicing social workers beginning in September, 2004. The course faculty are all highly trained and experienced leaders in the field. For more information and to register please visit our website at www.socialwork.nyu.edu or contact Dr. Eileen Wolkstein at 212-998-9099 for details and to answer questions.

The Resource Center for Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center was established by the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care, through a very generous grant from The Mayday Fund. The first of its kind nationwide to include both pain medicine and palliative care, The Resource Center serves as a clearinghouse for educational materials and as a nucleus of scholarship for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, psychosocial professionals, and patients and family caregivers. The educational section of this website provides information on fellowships, observerships, and courses developed for professionals and patients to assist in the advancement and understanding of pain medicine and palliative care.

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Clinical Aspects of Palliative Care

CAPC training seminars, along with Palliative Care Leadership Center site visits, can help you learn the nuts and bolts of how to operationalize a palliative care program. However, it is also essential that you gain expertise in the clinical practice of palliative care. The following institutions offer clinical training visits for clinicians interested in increasing their knowledge about the practice of high quality palliative care. Feel free to contact them directly for more information.

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