26 people from across francophone Africa have been attending palliative care training at Hospice Africa Uganda in Kampala.
The participants came from across 10 different francophone countries including Niger, Togo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The participants represented hospitals, NGOs and even Ministry’s of Health.
During the 5 week course, students covered a holistic programme including:
Week 1 and 2:
- What is palliative care, principals of palliative care
- Pain assessment and management
- Symptom control
- Communication skills and counselling, including how to break bad news
- Paediatric palliative care
- Bereavement care for both adults and children
- Rules governing use of narcotics
Week 2 and 3:
- A two week clinical placement, putting “theory into practice”
Week 5:
- Learning how to teach others in their work place about the importance of palliative care.
Dr Paul Pili Pili from the Ministry of Health in the Democratic Republic of Congo told ehospice that, “We learned a lot…and we now strongly believe that good palliative care requires more than he health system in the DRC currently has.”
Dr Faiza Abba Guomane from Niger added that she now thinks it is important to, “promote palliative care throughout the country, particularly the introduction of oral morphine, but also the training of health workers.”
The Africa edition of ehospice published a photo essay of some of the participants, which can be found here.
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