As people around the world live longer—often with multiple chronic conditions—the need for high-quality palliative and end of life care continues to grow. Yet too many individuals are still dying without the high-quality care and support they, and their unpaid carers, need. This is a critical moment to rethink and improve how palliative care is delivered.
Meeting the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of people with life-limiting illness, while navigating increasing resource and financial constraints, demands a bold and innovative approach.
To support this, Hull York Medical School has launched the MSc in Palliative Care: Implementing Best Practice—a fully online programme designed to equip professionals with the knowledge and skills to lead real and lasting change. The course has been developed and is led by Professor Jonathan Koffman and Professor Mark Pearson, both world leading experts and educationalists in palliative care research and implementation science. They argue that:
‘To continue to deliver high-quality sustainable support for patients at the end-of life or with advanced disease, we need to critically evaluate current provision, identify best practice, and develop innovative care models – only by doing that will we ensure sustainability of services in the long-term.
Our MSc in Palliative Care: Implementing Best Practice Programme has been designed to enable and empower health and social care professionals, policy makers and researchers to do just that!’
The MSc is taught by leading clinical academic and researchers from the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre. They are at the forefront of developing clinical guidelines and end of life care policy.
Recognising that palliative care is interdisciplinary, the programme is aimed at individuals globally from a range of specialities and disciplines including medical, health and social care professionals, policymakers, researchers.
Exciting modules cover key topics such as palliative care research and practice, implementation science for palliative care and long-term conditions, global palliative care development, the development and evaluation of complex interventions and regression analysis.
The programme allows students to develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to implement evidence-based palliative care across a range of settings.
The MSc offers a flexible route to study, with students able to study individual stand-alone CPD modules or a Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma or MSc route. Since teaching is delivered 100% online, it is accessible to to students across the world and those who have caring responsibilities.
Dr Louise Nicholson, a GP from the Northeast of England who joined the MSc in September, shares her experience:
‘As a GP, I’ve always been interested in how we implement palliative care services in the community. This programme allows me to pursue that interest in a way that fits around full-time work—and I’m really enjoying it.
‘Implementation science was a completely new concept to me, but it makes so much sense—especially as many studies in this field are rooted in primary care. It’s opened my eyes to how these approaches can be used in broader community settings.
‘The weekly Teams calls have been invaluable. They create space to learn from people with diverse professional backgrounds, offering fresh perspectives and helping you reflect on your own progress.
‘The course has broadened how I think about palliative care—particularly around who needs to be involved in designing better services, including patients, families and carers. I now feel more confident in taking ideas forward and making change happen.’
Professor Pearson and Koffman add ‘All too frequently we fail those living with life-limiting illness and their families. It does not have to be this way. Everyone affected by dying, death, and bereavement deserves the best possible care. With our new course, our aim is to build a global network of health and social care professionals, policy makes and researchers who will lead by example, conducting rigorous research and developing services that make profoundly positive differences to patients, their families and society.’
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Professor Jonathan Koffman, Programme Director
Professor Mark Pearson, Programme Director
This is really the in- thing. I’d love to know more about this MSc program and its related costs. Thank you for bringing up this dynamic approach to palliative care learning especially for us in the developing, poverty stricken third world nations.
My whatsapp number is +263 772949267