Key Principles of Palliative Care

Discover the global need for palliative care and trained caregivers

Palliative care is a form of medical care for those suffering from serious illnesses. This specialised medical care is essential for hundreds of thousands of patients all over the globe.

This three-week course from the University of the West Indies will provide you with a comprehensive overview of palliative care to help you provide attentive and holistic care for your patients.

Learn to recognise and treat symptoms with compassionate pain management

Care for serious illness is concentrated on managing the symptoms experienced by patients. You’ll learn to identify common symptoms of nausea, respiratory difficulty, and fatigue to assess and treat them accordingly.

With the skills you develop on this course, you’ll be equipped to provide your patients with relief from their pain and the burden of long-term illness.

Develop your communication skills to manage conversations about grief and loss

Grief and loss are unfortunate and sad realities of life-threatening illnesses. Many people, despite knowledge of their situation, struggle deeply with acknowledging matters of mortality.

With training from the healthcare specialists at the University of the West Indies, you’ll develop tactful communication skills and language to handle difficult conversations and assist your patients and their families with their coping process.

Improve the quality of life of your patients and their families

One of the outcomes of serious illness is its effect on mental health. With the expertise of the educators on this course, you’ll be equipped with the skills you need to ease not only physical pain but the emotional symptoms associated with it.

Once you have completed this course, you’ll be empowered to improve the quality of life of your patients and their loved ones.

This course is designed for general and specialised healthcare professionals and informal caregivers involved or interested in providing care to loved ones with life-threatening illnesses.

It can also be used to grow palliative care human resources and elderly caretaking training.

This course is designed for general and specialised healthcare professionals and informal caregivers involved or interested in providing care to loved ones with life-threatening illnesses.

It can also be used to grow palliative care human resources and elderly caretaking training.

• Justify the need for palliative care globally
• Assess the symptoms of pain, nausea and vomiting and dyspnea in a palliative care context
• Outline the scope of palliative care
• Identify their role as palliative care advocates in their own context
• Apply basic therapeutic communication skills to create safe communication environments for palliative care patients
• Describe the role of silence in conversations