Experiential workshop on innovative teaching methods to improve palliative care education.
Authors: Vereecke Danny , Hökkä Minna , Mitrea Nicoleta , Ling Julie , Paal Piret , Brennan Joanne , Baele Céline , Defloor Heidi , Ravelin Teija , Romppanen Taina , Kemppainen Liisa , Hämäläinen Saku , Mosoiu Daniela , Mathe Teodora , Spana Daniela , Brandstötter Cornelia , Coupez Veerle 
Published: January 2024

Introduction: To improve the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of healthcare providers for delivering quality generic palliative care, innovation in palliative care education and empowerment of the teaching staff are key.

Context for the workshop: The World Health Organization states that “Palliative care improves the quality of life of patients and that of their families who are facing challenges associated with life-threatening illness, whether physical, psychological, social or spiritual. The quality of life of caregivers improves as well.”. Per definition palliative care is patient-centred integrated care. Or at least it should be.

International research shows that nurses (and other healthcare providers) lack core competencies to deal with palliative care situations adequately. One of the underlying reasons is that the possibilities for practical internship in palliative care are limited and that there are few options for gaining bed-side practical experience with regard to supporting patients during the dying phase. Another cause is that the knowledge, skills and attitudes of nurse educators to teach something something as complex as palliative care are not sufficiently developed.

In a participatory approach four European institutes for higher education (KAMK (Finland), UnitBv (Romania), Howest (Belgium), PMU (Austria)), a hospice (Casa Speranţei Braşov, Romania), and the European Association for Palliative Care joined forces to support teaching staff and build up their capabilities. Funded by the Erasmus+ KA203 programme the NursEduPal@Euro partnership developed innovative, attractive and immersive ways to train palliative care core competencies as an important step to improve the quality of palliative nursing education.

Objective, structure and targeted audience of the workshop: During the 5 topics of the workshop, the NursEduPal@Euro team provides an inspiring experience with less traditional teaching methods for the participants. Starting from core competencies that bachelor degree nurses need to acquire to enable them to provide generalist palliative care, an immersive demonstration is given of innovative educational tools suited to accomplish the acquisition of those competencies. The input for all methodologies is a golden standard case telling the story of Maggie and Ben, an elderly couple that is dealing with issues of chronic disease, informal care giving and the end of life. The objective of the workshop is to promote the use of the demonstrated tools in palliative care education of (future) healthcare providers throughout Europe.

The 90-min workshop consists of the following parts: (1) Introduction of the NursEduPal@Euro project and the core competencies in palliative care (10 min), (2) Engage in design thinking to creative complex problem solving (20 min), (3) The game is on: a taste of a serious educational escape game (25 min), (4) Experience the strength of simulation as a learning tool (25 min), (5) Evaluation of the workshop by the audience with an online tool, directions on how to freely access the learning tools, and closing remarks (10 min).

Anyone interested in education is welcome: we are not only addressing the teaching staff of educational institutions, but also educators who are committed to promoting lifelong learning for the healthcare workforce.