) The overall goal of this project is to promote physician competency in end-of-life care by developing practical, clinically oriented educational materials that can be used when training medical students, residents, and practicing physicians to care for dying patients. The educational materials will be designed so they can be used by practicing physicians in individual learning situations, by teachers in academic centers of medicine as educational supplements to medical student lectures, by instructors in residency training programs, and by education coordinators in hospice programs that offer clinical rotations.
The specific aims for this project are as follows: (1) Develop two additional UNIPACs that address effective techniques for controlling pain and other distressing symptoms and the provision of comprehensive end-of-life care for two specific populations; pediatric patients and patients with AIDS -- UNIPAC Seven: Hospice/Palliative Care for Patients with AIDS - UNIPAC Eight: Hospice/Palliative Care for Pediatric Patients (2) Develop a Pocket Guide to Hospice/Palliative Medicine; (3) Develop a full-text searchable CD-ROM disc that includes the two proposed UNIPACs and the Pocket Guide, the six previous UNIPACs, and other educational materials; (4) Evaluate each of the education materials using input, process, and outcome measures; (5) Nationally distribute both print and electronic versions of the educational materials developed as a result of this grant.
