Family physicians play an integral role in providing palliative care and supporting patients and their families with advanced illness. The Palliative Care eLearning Program aims to improve your knowledge and skills in palliative and end-of-life care, and support your involvement with local and regional palliative care initiatives.
Each webinar, facilitated by a palliative care expert, focuses on individual competency-based assessment and collaborative knowledge building discourse. Patient cases and an extensive library of resources are used to support knowledge translation to practice, to help you to perform a palliative care assessment with the most up-to-date tools and create a coherent treatment plan that addresses patient, family, and caregiver needs. The webinars will review palliative care resources and tools and how they can be incorporated into practice to ensure efficient and comprehensive assessments. The necessity of effective communication will also be covered throughout the webinars.
Learn how to identify patients in your practice that would benefit from a palliative approach to their care. Upon completion of this program, you'll be equipped to appropriately assess and manage pain and other symptoms, recognize palliative care emergencies, discuss goals of care, and consider psychosocial needs of patients with advanced illness. In addition, develop strategies for physician self-care, life-long learning, and maintaining a sustainable practice.
Program Description
The Palliative Care eLearning Program is a comprehensive, case-based learning experience designed to build essential palliative care skills through interactive, expert-led online sessions. The program consists of six interactive webinars (each lasting three hours) that focus on real-world clinical cases, fostering collaborative learning and practical application.
- Each session introduces a clinical case that is progressively explored through guided discussion.
- Sessions are facilitated by palliative care experts to encourage active participation and practical learning.
- The case-based format allows participants to apply knowledge directly to clinical scenarios, improving confidence and competence.
Additional Program Features
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Electronic Resource Library
Access a comprehensive library of evidence-based resources to support learning and ongoing professional development. -
Interactive Feedback Exercises
Engage in formative feedback activities to identify and address individual learning needs.
This program is designed to empower healthcare professionals with the skills and confidence needed to deliver high-quality palliative care in diverse clinical settings.
Learning Objectives
- Identify patients in your practice that would benefit from a palliative approach to their care
- Perform a palliative care assessment and create a coherent treatment plan that addresses patient, family and caregiver needs and understand how to work and communicate with patients, families and their interdisciplinary care team
- Identify palliative care resources (e.g. CCAC, Speak Up, etc.) and screening tools (e.g. PPS, ESAS, etc.) and be able to incorporate them in your practice
- Assess and manage pain, including prescribing opioids effectively, using adjuvants, and refer to a specialist when required
- Identify and manage common symptoms experienced by patients with advanced illnesses (e.g. shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, constipation, and fatigue)
- Recognize and manage common palliative care emergencies (e.g. SCC, hypercalcemia, bowel obstruction, etc.)
- Identify and manage the psychosocial spiritual needs of patients with advanced illnesses
- Discuss goals of care with patients and their families and understand the importance of communicating patients’ goals to all caregivers in the health care team
- Manage patients in the last hours and days of life
- Develop strategies for physician self-care, life-long learning, and sustainable practice
Offered By
This program is a collaborative partnership between the Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care, Sinai Health and the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto with funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health. Enrolment is limited and intended for health professionals practicing in the province of Ontario.