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Textbook of Palliative Care pp 1–21Cite as

Palliative Care Education: An Overview

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Abstract

Education has been a core function of all practitioners in palliative care since the birth of the modern hospice movement. Much progress has been made since palliative medicine was first recognized as a discrete medical specialty. In order to understand the complexities of education in this area, this chapter provides a broad overview of issues related to palliative care education from undergraduate students to continuing and postgraduate training and to the needs of family carers and staff who work in residential aged care facilities.

The chapter initially outlines some of the principles of adult education by drawing on the work of several key theorists and then discusses the sociopolitical context of palliative and end-of-life care with due consideration to the changing needs of society. Evidence of progress in undergraduate and continuing education is presented and discussed as well as opportunities for advanced specialty training.

The learning needs of family carers and staff who work in residential aged care facilities are addressed with examples of the types of education and training that is available for these essential providers of palliative care and whose needs are often overlooked in traditional educational settings.

Finally, we provide examples of the many and varied educational methods that are currently in use including simulation, interprofessional education, and learning in the clinical setting.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Lis Latta

  2. The University of Sydney School of Medicine, Sydney, Australia

    Rod MacLeod

  3. Palliative Care, HammondCare, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Rod MacLeod

  4. Hibiscus Hospice, Auckland, New Zealand

    Rod MacLeod

Authors
  1. Lis Latta
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  2. Rod MacLeod
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Correspondence to Rod MacLeod .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. HammondCare Learning and Research Centre, Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich, New South Wales, Australia

    Roderick Duncan MacLeod

  2. Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VUB-UGent End-of-Life Care Research Grou Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Lieve Van den Block

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Latta, L., MacLeod, R. (2018). Palliative Care Education: An Overview. In: MacLeod, R., Van den Block, L. (eds) Textbook of Palliative Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31738-0_95-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31738-0_95-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31738-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31738-0

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