Educational opportunities in palliative care: what do general practitioners want?

Abstract

It is important to support general practitioners (GPs) in maintaining and developing their palliative care skills as most of the final year of a patient's life is spent at home under the care of the primary health care team. The training needs and uptake of GPs have been explored, but little is known about how GP educational preferences vary. The aim of this study was to explore the current educational preferences of GPs in different geographical locations as part of an evaluation of an educational intervention. The methods used included postal questionnaires sent to 1061 GPs. Results from 640 (60%) of GPs revealed that half (51%) wanted education in symptom control for non-cancer patients. More inner-city GPs wanted education in opiate prescribing (43%), controlling nausea and vomiting (45%), and using a syringe driver (38%) than their urban and rural colleagues (26%, 29% and 21%, respectively). Increased educational preference and increased difficulty in accessing information was associated with reduced confidence in symptom control. To maximize educational uptake it will be important for educational strategies to be developed and targeted according to variations in demand, and in particular to respond to the need for palliative care education in symptom control for patients suffering from advanced non-malignant disease.

General Practitioners' Attitudes to Palliative Care: A Western Australian Rural Perspective

“…[28][29][30] Psychosocial needs and bereavement counseling for terminally ill patients are also repeatedly cited areas of educational deficit for GPs in the literature. 7,17,29,39 However, participants in our study did not raise these psychosocial issues.…”

Preparation for cancer care: Perceptions of newly qualified health care professionals

“…This seems to suggest that although nurses may appear more confident in providing physical care of a personal nature, they may be less aware of the specialist symptom control that cancer patients require. In a survey conducted on General Practitioners (GPs), Shipman et al (2001) found that out of 1061 GPs, just over half perceived they needed education on symptom control. These studies appear to be significant considering that GPs and nurses play a pivotal role in cancer care.…”

Evaluation of a scheme to enhance palliative cancer care in rural Wales

“…Nevertheless, recent studies [1,3,8,17] suggest that GPs and other primary health care team (PHCT) members do regard palliative care as a high priority and recognise their front-line position as a source of assistance for those with palliative care needs. Some educational programmes for GPs in palliative care have met with limited support [10,19], but the introduction of GP 'facilitators' to co-ordinate palliative care education in PHCTs has been more widely taken up.…”