Palliative care

Placements in palliative care settings

There are a variety of student eLearning opportunities for palliative care.

Contains tutorials and videos for students working with patients who are palliative.
Covers general principles of palliative care and focus areas which include multidisciplinary care, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations and caring for children.
Highly recommended for students working in a palliative care area. The videos are also valuable resources for students working in a multidisciplinary environment and for those working with clients from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background.

Contains resources on using a palliative approach in a residential Aged Care setting.
One resource, ‘Guidelines for a Palliative Approach in Residential Aged Care’ contains comprehensive information on palliative care, family support, end of life care and pain management.
Resources can be ordered from the Department of Health website.

Contains sections for clients and carers, and health professionals, covering topics such as clinical evidence, finding evidence, and education.
The clients and carers section is very practical and includes videos relating to topics such as end of life, grief, how to care and living with the illness.
The health professionals section provides information topics related to general practitioners, allied health, nurses, residential aged care workers, researchers and those who work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, client assessment, client care, clinical decisions, bereavement and self-care .
The clinical evidence section contains information on advanced care planning, patient care and conditions carer evidence, and health system issues.
The finding evidence section includes tips on searching for and using evidence, PubMed searches, information on searching the grey literature and the systematic review collection
The education section contains education and training options for health professions, care workers, carers and volunteers (including formal qualifications, short courses, and workshops, as well as eLearning).
If your student’s placement is primarily palliative care or your student is struggling with the emotions around their patients/clients end of life, this website would be valuable for them.

Is the National Peak Body for palliative care in Australia.
Contains resources for health professional including fact sheets on topics such as opioid medications and standards for general practice.
Consumer resources are easy to read and topics range from palliative care, understanding grief and pain and pain management.
This site is valuable if you are looking for simple fact sheets for your students on the specific palliative care topics.

Is a Department of Health and Ageing training site which is free to access.
Requires registration and involves 4 x on-line modules which take 6-8 hours to complete (in total). The module content is based on the Guidelines for a Palliative approach in a community setting. The modules contain the following topics: reflection, screening and assessment skills, end of life conversations, own self-care, resilience and networking.
This site is more valuable for clinicians and for students who require more intensive palliative care learning.

Forms part of the Palliative Care Education and Training Collaborative
Aims to enhance the capacity of health professionals to deliver a palliative care approach through their participation in either clinical placements in specialist palliative care services or interactive workshop.

Provides information for health professionals to support palliative care and advance care planning for older Australians
Contains various toolkits that provide education and learning opportunities online