A One Day Paediatric Palliative Care Study Day Improves Skills

A One Day Paediatric Palliative Care Study Day Improves Skills

Aidoo E

Archives of Disease in Childhood

2023

Palliative Care; child; controlled study; female; human; male; advance care planning; ethics; palliative therapy; clinical article; consultation; human experiment; questionnaire; conference abstract; skill; learning; appetite

Objectives To see if a network Palliative Care Study day increases knowledge of participants. Method This was the first paediatric palliative care network study day run in the region. 20 doctors (both consultants and those in training) participated. The day was a mixture of presentations and in depth work shops covering advance care planning discussions (with actors); symptom management and discussion of ethical and legal principles underpinning palliative care. The course was run face to face. A pre-course questionnaire was sent out online to applicants to gain an understanding of their prior knowledge and their learning objectives. Post course feedback was obtained via paper questionnaire at the end of the study day. Results Participants ranked their pre-course knowledge of Advance Care Planning; End of life processes; Symptom Management; Ethics in palliative care as 3/5 (mode and median, n=19) and post course as 4 (mode and median, n=16). 100% of respondents would recommend this course to a colleague and 100% felt the course met the objectives. Feedback on how to improve identified an appetite for clinicians to have more practice in discussing advance care planning with families. Conclusion Feedback identified clinicians (both those in training and consultants) do not feel equipped to start advance care planning discussions, manage symptoms or know what to do when a child dies. Our study day demonstrated a gain in these skills.

Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

October List 2023