The Status of Undergraduate Palliative Medicine Education in Canada: A 2001 Survey

Abstract

A survey was conducted in fall 2001/spring 2002 to provide an update on the status of undergraduate palliative medicine education in Canada. The survey identified that the majority of palliative care teaching occurs in the pre-clinical years of medical school, with supervised patient encounters occurring primarily during electives. The coverage of palliative care topics is inconsistent across curricula. Student evaluation methods also vary, with only one school using simulated patients. More than half the schools have an academic division or department of palliative care medicine, although faculty with protected academic time are few in number. A number of barriers to palliative medicine education were identified, including competition for time within the undergraduate curriculum, and lack of resources for curriculum development and teaching. Respondents recommended increased clinical exposure, curriculum development, student assessment and evaluation, faculty development, and improved infrastructure. Following these recommendations, the Undergraduate Palliative Medicine Committee has dedicated itself to developing and fostering a strategic implementation plan to improve palliative medicine education in Canadian medical schools.

Palliative care education in US medical schools

“…It is beyond the scope of this paper to present a systematic review of these, but there are several outstanding programmes and curricula of which educators should be aware. In particular, Canada has provided a defined palliative care medical student curriculum since 1993, although subsequent surveys show considerable variation in its implementation . Similarly, the UK has a long history of hospice education through the St Christopher's Group and other agencies, and has had a defined palliative care curriculum since 1992, but most of the evaluative studies have been sporadic and conducted at single sites.…”

A UK Perspective on Worldwide Inadequacies in Palliative Care Training: A Short Postgraduate Course Is Proposed

“…[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Attempts have been made to introduce palliative care training from undergraduate through to postgraduate education, but it is not clear at what stage training is best implemented and so most effective for future clinical practice.…”

“…9 A 2001 survey in Canada found the median taught time to be just 10 hours. 10 A 1988 survey by Thorpe 11 of 103 hospices in the United Kingdom studied their involvement in undergraduate medical education. Most of the 29 teaching hospices were involved only in educating clinical year students (years [3][4][5], and in 22 of the 29, teaching took place in only 1 or 2 years of the undergraduate curriculum.…”

Exploring Change After Implementation of Family Medicine Residency Curriculum Reform

“…These findings align with Canadian literature during this time calling for more intentional and improved teaching of intrapartum care to FM residents, as well as advocacy for more palliative care education. [16][17][18] The trend of a narrowing scope of practice was less evident in the FMLS 2015 data. Indeed, the results presented here illustrate a positive shift in the 2015 data of intentions to practice in-home and palliative care, which is encouraging since population statistics indicate the number of elderly individuals in the Canadian population continues to grow.…”