Abstract
Education is a core element of clinical practice for all healthcare practitioners. While much progress has been made since palliative medicine was first recognized as a medical specialty, misconceptions and lack of awareness about the benefits of palliative care remain. To understand the complexities of education in this area, this chapter provides a broad overview of issues related to palliative care education from undergraduate level to continuing and postgraduate training, and to the needs of family carers and staff who work in residential aged care facilities.
The chapter begins by outlining the principles of adult education by drawing on the work of key theorists and then discusses the sociopolitical context of palliative and end-of-life care with due consideration to the changing needs of society. Evidence of progress in undergraduate and continuing education is presented and discussed as well as opportunities for advanced specialty training.
The learning needs of family carers and staff who work in residential aged care facilities are also addressed with examples of the types of education and training that is available for these essential providers of primary palliative care whose needs are often overlooked in traditional educational settings. Finally, we provide examples of the wide variety of educational methods used in palliative care education including simulation, gaming, interprofessional education, and learning in the clinical setting.