Date: 20 January 2025 to 30 March 2025
Venue: UCT VULA Online Learning Platform
Time: refer to full programme
Course fee is
Participants from South Africa: R 7 150 per person
Participants from other parts of Africa: R 7 700 per person
International participants: R 9 350 per person
Register Online
CPD points 30
The Introduction to Palliative Care is a 10-week course presented on the UCT VULA online platform.
The course is aimed at healthcare and counselling professionals to equip them in assessing and managing patients (and their families) living with life-limiting and life-threatening illness, to improve their quality of life and support their families in providing care at home.
Entry requirements: Healthcare professionals with a Degree or Diploma in their discipline (professional nurses may have a Diploma; other healthcare professionals should have a degree, degree in social work or psychology).
The course consists of 8 modules, each module requires 4-5 hours of teaching and learning. Each module is covered in a 1-week period. During this period there will also be an online discussion, facilitated by a palliative care clinician.
Course content:
- Module 1: Principles of Palliative Care
- Module 2: Ethical Principles in Palliative Care
- Module 3: Communication skills in Palliative Care; Breaking Bad News and Building Hope
- Module 4: Pain Assessment and Management
- Module 5: Symptom Management
- Module 6: Psychosocial aspects of palliative care; family support
- Module 7: Culture, Spirituality and Sexuality
- Module 8: Teamwork, Care of the Caregiver and Resilience
Course content is presented using the following methods:
1) PowerPoint slides and online facilitation sessions
2) Essential reading – articles, book chapters or handout summary of core topics
3) Videos relating to core concepts
4) Communication skills tasks
Learning is assessed through MCQs and/or Extended Match Questions (EMQs), contribution to the discussion forums online and case presentations. As well as the MCQs and the forums, there will also be a group case presentation in week 10 of the course. The class will be split into small groups of 4-6, depending on class size, and each group will present a case, applying the learning from the course.”
View the summary of the programme
A digital certificate of completion and CPD points will be issued to participants on successful completion of the course.
The aim is to provide basic training in palliative care to meet the recommendation of the 2014 World Health Assembly Resolution 67.19 and the South African Policy Framework and Strategy for Palliative Care (that all healthcare professionals should engage in basic training in palliative care).
For more information or to register email ce.administration@uct.ac.za