Training All Clinicians in Essential Communication and Symptom Management Skills
How can you ensure access to palliative care services for all patients when budgets are tight and specialty-trained providers are scarce?
Improving care quality for people living with a serious illness is everybody’s job. It requires an organizational commitment to train all clinicians in core skills, including communication, pain and symptom management, and caregiver support.
Use this toolkit to make the case for training, identify training groups, and build training pathways.
What’s in the Toolkit
The Case for Communication and Symptom Management Training
This publication makes the case for training both palliative care and nonpalliative care specialists in communication and symptom management skills. Training in these skills results in measurably better quality of care, improved patient and family experience, and more time spent at home and out of hospitals.
CAPC Curriculum
Courses for clinicians from all specialties, including CE for all disciplines. Free for CAPC members.
Course catalog for CAPC's clinical training curriculum. Onboard new palliative care team members using standardized training, or train non-palliative care specialists in core skills. All courses provide continuing education credits for all disciplines and are free for CAPC members.
Online training curriculum for all specialties and disciplines to strengthen their care of patients living with serious illness. Free continuing education credits for all, and physicians receive ABIM MOC credits for select courses.
Training and clinical tools for managing pain in patients living with serious illness, with a focus on safe opioid prescribing and risk assessment for substance use disorder.
Techniques for communicating with patients and families about their serious illness and eliciting patient hopes, fears, and priorities for care.
Training curriculum and clinical tools for assessing and managing five common symptoms in patients living with serious illness.
Supporting family caregivers and ensuring seamless coordination of care.
Addressing factors that contribute to quality of life for people with serious illness and their families.
Connecting people with serious illness to needed services and supports.
Strategies to alleviate suffering and improve quality of life for people living with dementia and their caregivers.
Training by Specialty or Discipline
Suggested training pathways based on specialty, discipline, and patient population.
Find CAPC-curated courses and tools based on your specialty, discipline, or area of interest. CAPC courses provide free continuing education credits for all staff at member organizations, and ABIM MOC credits for physicians.
Implementing a Training Program
Transforming the way we care for patients and families living with serious illness takes organizational commitment and planning. Develop a strategy to train all clinicians in critical skills, including communication and symptom management, for best care of people with serious illness.
Course catalog for CAPC's clinical training curriculum. Onboard new palliative care team members using standardized training, or train non-palliative care specialists in core skills. All courses provide continuing education credits for all disciplines and are free for CAPC members.
CAPC Designation provides standard competencies in Pain Management, Symptom Management, Communication Skills, Dementia Care, Social Work for Serious Illness, and Registered Nursing Practices for Serious Illness
LEAD THE CHARGE FOR CHANGE
How to engage staff in a clinical training initiative using CAPC's online courses.
Trinity Health's journey to expand access to specialty palliative care across settings, and train all clinicians to identify and address sources of suffering for patients with serious illness.
A case study from Bluegrass Care Navigators.
Self-study tutorial on teaching methods in palliative care.
Customizable proposal to leadership to conduct a clinical training pilot using CAPC courses.
Concise, practical, peer-reviewed and evidence-based summaries on topics important to clinicians and trainees caring for seriously ill patients. Use Fast Facts to onboard staff and for ongoing team education.
