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Palliative Care and Hospice for Nurses and Health Professionals

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About Course

This course provides comprehensive knowledge and practical skills for delivering compassionate, patient-centered care to individuals with life-limiting illnesses. It emphasizes symptom management, psychosocial support, ethical decision-making, and interdisciplinary teamwork to enhance quality of life for patients and their families.

This course has been designed based on the curriculum for nurses and midwives – Uganda (Diploma, Certificate, and others), and yet with care to serve specific groups well.

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

  1. Define palliative care and hospice and differentiate them from curative care.

  2. Understand the principles and philosophy of palliative care.

  3. Assess and manage common physical symptoms (pain, dyspnea, nausea, fatigue).

  4. Provide psychosocial, spiritual, and emotional support to patients and families.

  5. Navigate ethical and legal issues in end-of-life care.

  6. Communicate effectively with patients, families, and healthcare teams.

  7. Plan and coordinate interdisciplinary care in palliative and hospice settings.

  8. Advocate for patient dignity, autonomy, and quality of life.

Target Audience:

  • Health workers (nurses, doctors, clinical officers)

  • Social workers and counselors

  • Community health workers involved in end-of-life care

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Course Content

Topic I: Palliative Care Concepts
Palliative care is an essential part of modern healthcare, especially for patients with life-limiting or terminal illnesses. This topic introduces the core concepts, principles, and importance of palliative care, preparing nurses to deliver competent and sensitive care to those in need.

  • Lesson 1.1: Introduction to Palliative Care
  • Lesson 1.2: Roles of Palliative Care

Topic 2: The Hospice Concept
This topic explores hospice care as a specialized branch of palliative care focused on providing holistic, compassionate support to patients approaching the end of life. Students will learn about the philosophy, goals, and principles of hospice care, as well as the roles of healthcare providers in delivering coordinated, patient-centered services.

Topic 3: Communication and Family Support
This topic explores the critical role of communication in palliative care, emphasizing how healthcare providers can effectively interact with patients and families. Students will learn strategies for therapeutic communication, understand the processes involved, and develop skills to support families through difficult conversations, ensuring comfort, understanding, and shared decision-making.

Topic 4: Pain Management
Pain is one of the most distressing and feared symptoms among patients with life-limiting illnesses. In palliative care, effective pain management is central to improving quality of life and preserving dignity. This topic focuses on pain, pain assessment, pain management, and more.

Topic 5: Symptoms of Terminally Ill Patients & Control
This topic explores the common physical and psychological symptoms experienced by terminally ill patients and emphasizes strategies for managing these symptoms to improve comfort, dignity, and quality of life.

Topic 6: Palliative Care Emergencies
This topic explores the recognition and compassionate management of emergencies that may arise in patients receiving palliative care. Although the primary goal of palliative care is to relieve suffering rather than to cure, sudden and distressing situations—such as uncontrolled pain, hemorrhage, respiratory distress, or acute deterioration—can still occur and demand immediate, thoughtful intervention.

Topic 7: Psychosocial, Spiritual, and Bereavement
This topic explores the emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of palliative care. It recognizes that serious illness affects more than just the body—it touches the mind, relationships, identity, and purpose of life.

Topic 8: Ethics and Terminal Care
This topic explores the ethical and legal dimensions of palliative and end-of-life care. In caring for terminally ill patients, health workers often face complex moral questions — balancing the duty to relieve suffering with respect for life, autonomy, and dignity

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