Spiralled Palliative Care Curriculum Aligned with International Guidelines Improves Self-Efficacy but Not Attitudes: Education Intervention Study

Our colleagues Amanda Landers and Tim Wilkinson from the University of Otago, Christchurch School of Medicine have recently written about the benefits of a coordinated palliative and end of life care education programme. Writing in Advances in Medical Education and Practice 2021:12 1531–1538 they say:

Palliative care is an essential part of the medical undergraduate programme; however, it is taught in an ad-hoc and variable way throughout the world. This study found a co-ordinated palliative and end-of-life care programme increases knowledge and skills but may not improve attitudes. The University of Otago undergraduates reported high confidence in patient management, symptom management and team attributes compared to other countries. Palliative care undergraduate courses are likely to require several experiential learning opportunities with patients to improve attitudes to dying people. More research of the junior doctor years may highlight if experience is the missing factor to develop positive attitudes.

The article is open access and can be accessed below:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8722720/