Improving Access to High Quality Education to Develop Global Leaders in Palliative Care
Millions of people throughout the world die suffering from serious and distressing untreated symptoms. These numbers are predicted to increase over the coming decades with people from low and middle-income countries disproportionately affected.
Palliative care is an approach to alleviate suffering towards the end of life. It has been shown to improve quality of life and reduce distressing symptoms and is affordable to deliver. However, global access to palliative care is inequitable, with many living in low and middle-income countries frequently having little or no access to pain relief.
We urgently need global leaders with skills to mobilise policy change and investment, and to lead national palliative care programmes. To achieve this, we need world-class accessible postgraduate education to equip future global leaders with these skills.
Aims
The EduPall project aims to develop, refine, evaluate and disseminate our MSc Palliative Care programme to maximise global access and to build a future workforce and network of international leaders in palliative care, particularly targeting students from low and middle-income countries. Our objectives are:
- To develop the programme content to position students, particularly those from low and middle-income countries, to become international leaders in the field of palliative care.
- To maximise global access to an MSc Palliative Care Programme with regards to attendance and affordability by developing and refining Hyflex delivery.
- To evaluate the refined programme against its learning objectives and its accessibility, and evaluate student and educator experience.
- To develop and disseminate project outputs to share learning, develop further international collaborations and networks, and widen the accessibility of the programme.
Our MSc is one of the world’s most acclaimed programmes in palliative care. This multi-professional course, jointly developed by King's College London and St Christopher's Hospice has supported the career development of hundreds of healthcare professionals across the globe. Click here and find out more about the programme.
Methods
The project comprises development and evaluation phases comprising:
- Co-design workshops
- User testing
- Repeat surveys
- Analysis of programme metrics
Principal Investigators
Lecturer in Palliative Care
Vice Dean (International) and Director and Global Lead, Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation
Affiliations
Funding
Funding Body: Sir Halley Stewart Trust
Amount: 57,113
Period: January 2021 - December 2022