Combined Curriculum in Paediatric Palliative Medicine: Download your free copy now
Prepared by the Education Subgroup of the British Society for Paediatric Palliative Medicine and Association of Children’s Hospice Doctors
In 2007, there are still only six specialist consultants in children’s palliative medicine in the United Kingdom. But a far greater number of doctors - general paediatricians, paediatricians in related sub-specialties, adult palliative care physicians, and GPs working in children’s hospices - now identify themselves as having a major interest in paediatric palliative medicine.
The Curriculum in Paediatric Palliative Medicine aims to inform the training and assessment of these and all doctors who encounter dying children or those with life-limiting conditions. The Curriculum in Paediatric Palliative Medicine 2008, prepared by the Education Subgroup of the British Society for Paediatric Palliative Medicine and Association of Children’s Hospice Doctors, is now available and free to download in Word or PDF format.
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Download a PDF version here.
Download a Word version here.
Good palliative medicine skills overlap at one end of the spectrum with much of what makes a good doctor. It is not at all the intention of this document to suggest that all palliative medicine is specialist territory. Rather, it is to clarify the minimum set of paediatric palliative medicine skills that should be achieved by doctors at four different stages in their development. At one end are the generic paediatric palliative medicine skills that any qualifying doctor should possess. At the other, are the specialist skills that would be expected only from an individual who has undergone a period of specialist training in palliative medicine in children.
Nor is it the intention of this document to suggest that all palliative care in children is palliative medicine. While doctors have an important role in caring for children when cure is no longer possible, many of the skills that are important in maintaining a child’s quality of life are better found outside the medical profession. For that reason, in this document the term ‘palliative medicine’ is used. As in the adult speciality, it refers to the skill set that would be expected from practitioners with a medical degree in contrast with experts from other caring backgrounds, particularly nurses.
Medical support for children’s hospices has traditionally been from doctors; including general practitioners, paediatricians, adult palliative medicine doctors, and other medical specialists, many of whom have been working in a hospice for many years. This document forms the basis of a universal standard for all doctors from any background working in children’s hospices, and is similar to a parallel document setting educational standards for paediatricians outside the hospice environment.
The committee drawing up the following curriculum has included three GP hospice doctors and a paediatric palliative care consultant. Three of the committee were also on the working party developing the parallel paediatric palliative medicine curriculum for paediatricians.
In summary, the curriculum identifies educational needs of doctors working in paediatric palliative medicine. |
