Career Planning in Palliative Care

General orientation to palliative care

The Centre for Palliative Care has developed a two-day introductory program, which is ideal as an orientation program for all health professionals seeking to work in palliative care.  The program is also recommended for health professionals currently working in palliative care or who are responsible for delivering palliative care as part of their role.

The program, entitled Palliative Care:  The Essentials, was developed in consultation with an advisory group consisting of clinicians and academics from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, and focuses on the core elements of palliative care.  The advantage of providing education to a multidisciplinary audience is the opportunity for clinicians to gain awareness and appreciation for the skills and roles of disciplines other than their own in the context of providing palliative care.

Program delivery consists of mixed methods, including didactic, question and answer sessions, workshops and panel/case discussions.  Resources, appropriate to each session, including relevant reading materials, websites and reference lists are provided to the participants.

Palliative Care:  The Essentials has been extensively evaluated by more than 500 participants during the pilot phase.  The results of the evaluation have been published in a peer review journal (Quinn K, Hudson P, Ashby M, Thomas K. 2008 “Palliative Care: The Essentials”: Evaluation of a Multidisciplinary Education Program. Journal of Palliative Medicine 11:8 pp1122-9) and presented at national and international conferences.

For further information on Palliative Care: The Essentials and our other programs and courses please see the other pages on this website related to training, or contact:

Karen Quinn
Education Coordinator
Centre for Palliative Care
Phone: 9854 1665
Email: karen.quinn@svhm.org.au