) This is a renewal application requesting continued funding for an interdisciplinary educational program in palliative care at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (UCHSC). Based on our prior experience and the recent literature, further implementation of this new palliative care curriculum is needed, particularly at the University hospital level. This new curriculum will satisfy the two major hypotheses behind this proposal: 1) there will be further improvement in student's knowledge, skills and attitudes toward dying patients including optimal symptom management and, 2) this information will lead to a better understanding of hospice/palliative care, so that will ultimately everyday medical practice will be affected with better care of terminal patients.
The Specific Aims of this application are: 1) Further expansion and implementation of an interdisciplinary course in palliative care. The course curriculum has now been developed through a pilot program. This curriculum will now be expanded into a multi-institutional interdisciplinary course attended by students in the schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry and pharmacy. 2) By using a fully developed standardized patient, all students in the medical school curriculum will be exposed to palliative care through enhancement of patient/physician communication symptom management. Eventually this will be developed into a problem bond learning (PBL) format with a large number of educational issues. 3) Further development of a module related to quality of life assessment in patients with serious illness will occur. This quality of life assessment will encompass the multitude of domains encountered in patients receiving palliative care. 4) Evaluation of the current status of University Hospital staff members and students knowledge and attitudes toward death and dying and current practices being utilized with patients/families related to palliative care. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods will be used. Based on study findings, an educational programs regarding care of dying patients and families will be developed and shared with hospital staff and students. The desired outcomes for this program include: a change in knowledge and attitudes toward the dying patient and his/her care; and, the use of palliative care guidelines in caring for the dying patient. Overall, these programs will allow for case-based objective learning along with real clinical experiences that will hopefully change knowledge, skills and attitudes to the extent that terminal patients will receive better care.
| Seligman, P A; Fink, R; Massey-Seligman, E J (1998) Approach to the seriously ill or terminal cancer patient who has a poor appetite. Semin Oncol 25:33-4 |
