Supporting Undergraduate Palliative Nursing Education Needs

A meeting was held of the team working on the WUN project on Supporting Undergraduate Palliative Care Education Needs in Kimberley, South Africa from the 4^th-6^th October 2023. The project aims to generate an understanding of undergraduate palliative care nursing education in South Africa, Uganda, Ghana, New Zealand, Canada and the UK, to identify areas for reciprocal learning and education/shared learning priorities between these countries, and to develop an international network of palliative care nursing researchers and educators to improve palliative care nursing education. A lack of palliative care training for nurses, who account for nearly 50% of the global healthcare workforce, has been identified as a barrier to patient access to palliative care services internationally.

The project brings together WUN academics from the University of Sheffield, the University of Leeds, Makerere University, the Henrietta Stockdale Nursing College, the University of Ghana, the University of Alberta and the University of Auckland. Non-WUN partners also include the Glynnis Gale Foundation, Mesothelioma UK Research Centre, Lancaster University, Henrietta Stockdale Nursing College and the African Palliative Care Association.

The meeting was hosted by the Glynnis Gale Foundation in Kimberley, along with the Henrietta Stockdale Nursing College. The programme included opportunity to catch up with the project and the research study looking at undergraduate nurses palliative care education in academic institutions in South Africa, Uganda, Ghana, New Zealand, Canada and the UK. Time was spent reviewing transcripts from focus groups, doing some initial coding and starting the process of analysis. Ethical approval is still being finalised in several centres, but the study is moving forward, and it was great to be able to work together on the initial analysis. We also had an update on the status of the literature review, and the initial findings. On the Friday we were able to join with the Henrietta Stockdale Nursing College at their celebration at St Cyprians Cathedral where Dr Steph Ejegi-Memeh presented the Sr Henrietta Stockdale 8^th Memorial Lecture.

It was great to be able to meet together face-to-face and the team were grateful to the Glynnis Gale Foundation, Mesothelioma UK, Hugh James and WUN for making this possible. Clare Gardiner, Co-Director of the Mesothelioma Research Centre said of the meeting “The meeting provided a valuable opportunity to come together in person, and share learning and expertise on the important topic of palliative care nursing education. We were privileged to be joined by experts from across the world, and together we laid the foundations for an ongoing research partnership that will continue to support the development of nursing education internationally”

Tracey Wood from the Glynnis Gale Foundation said “In the heart of Kimberley, we witnessed the power of collaboration and where passionate individuals joined hands. Together, we’re not just shaping the future of palliative care education; we’re creating a legacy of compassion that will touch lives across borders”.