In a fast-evolving healthcare landscape, the need for compassionate, reflective, and ethically grounded practice is more essential than ever. With this vision, Two Worlds Cancer Collaboration launched iECHO course ‘Tools for Modern Clinical Practice’ in March–April 2025 to support palliative care professionals in strengthening the core interpersonal and ethical competencies essential for high-quality palliative care.
This five-session series brought together clinicians, counselors, and educators to explore tools that are often missing in conventional medical training but are central to good palliative care. The course was led by Smriti Khanna and sessions were conducted by Camara van Breeman, Spandana Rayala, Megan Doherty, Roop Gursahani and Jehanzeb Baldiwala. The sessions were interactive and case-based, with an emphasis on practical templates, personal reflection, and peer learning.
The course opened with Clinical Reflection and Debriefing. Participants explored structured ways to reflect on challenging clinical encounters, using individual and group-based tools.
Next, Giving Feedback and Supervision addressed the nuances of constructive feedback and clinical supervision. The session included frameworks for navigating difficult conversations and creating psychologically safe environments for ongoing learning.
Working Through Ethical Dilemmas, focused on recognizing and resolving ethical tensions in clinical care. Participants examined decision-making frameworks and discussed the role of clinical ethics committees, anchoring ethical reasoning in day-to-day practice.
The fourth session, Self-Compassion and Avoiding Burnout, invited introspection on personal wellbeing. Participants were guided through evidence-based tools for self-care, including the widely used Self-Compassion Scale, to foster resilience and emotional sustainability.
The series culminated in a Case-Based Narrative Supervision session with an emphasis on narrative therapy based case discussion. Participants brought real clinical stories for group discussion, and were introduced to the principles of narrative theory.
One of the participants, Dr Nickson Tai said, ‘ Attending the Tools for modern Clinical Practice 2025 has reminded me to put on my mask before helping others. Various tools and resources were shared over 5 weeks and the most valuable of all was the advice shared by practitioners across different health settings. What stays with me are the principles of team based reflective practice and supervision.’
The success pilot of this Clinical Reflection Tools course represents a significant step forward in education and practices in health care. The course is being planned for yearly iterations.
Thank you for sharing this useful summary that allows us as faculty to reconsider and redesign our teaching- learning methods.