Transforming Integrated Palliative & End Of Life Care HEA4197

Overview

The module will provide clinicians with an overview of palliative and end of life care, background information, with the principles and practical skills for providing impeccable holistic assessment and excellent end of life care. This will include the principles of co-ordinating the care of those approaching the end of life, planning for their future care, dealing with uncertainty in the situation of acute illness (with uncertain recovery) in those with a poor prognosis, recognising and providing care for the dying in line with the Priorities for Care of the Dying (2014), the NICE Guidance for Care of the Dying Adult (2015 & 2017 update) and respecting patient choices when dying has been recognised.
The module will include a review of the development of palliative and end of life care, and cover the building blocks of symptom assessment and management, care planning, communication skills, ethics related to living the last months of life, spiritual assessment and care, bereavement care and future care planning.

This module can be studied standalone. For those undertaking the PGCert or MSc Integrated Palliative & End of Life Care this is the preferred, although not essential, first core module for setting the stage.

Module code:	HEA4197
Level:	7
Module credits:	20
Cost for new students:	£1000 for 2024/25 academic year

If you are an existing student who is undertaking this module as part of a programme, your fee will have been advised to you by email. You can also check your fees online. For any queries, please contact [email protected]

If your tuition fee is being paid by a sponsor or you are a sponsor paying a student’s fee, you are required to send a copy of a purchase order to [email protected].

For further guidance please visit: Sponsored students – Edge Hill University

Who is this module for?

This module is aimed at frontline clinicians, providing core level palliative care. It will be of particular interest to district nurses and general practitioners, hospital ward nurses and trainee/SAS doctors, all specialist nurses, hospice nurses and doctors, some allied health professionals dependent upon role including occupational therapists, physiotherapists, paramedics, pharmacists – all whose work encompasses interaction with those approaching the final months and end of life.

What are the key aims of the module?

This module aims to provide enhanced skills and knowledge for health and social care professional in equipping them to provide optimal palliative and end of life care for patients and those important to them, based upon the current evidence:-

• Understanding the signs, symptoms and impact of advanced progressive disease
• Recognising when individuals are approaching the end of life
• Discussing prognosis and involving the individual in shared decision-making about care
• Managing the transition to a positive palliative care approach
• Anticipating future needs and co-ordinating ongoing care,
with a framework based on the Ambitions for End of Life Care (2015).

How will I study?

Regular weekly face to face teaching including lectures, interactive workshops, group work and peer presentations. Regular weekly online activities in which students are expected to take part. Regular group tutorial time and each student is entitled to 1 hour of individual tutorial time. Individual study, reading and preparation for sessions. Hybrid learning is an educational approach where some individuals participate in-person and some participate synchronously online. The tutor delivers the session in the classroom and teaches to remote and in-person learners at the same time using virtual technology so all the students are taught together in ‘real time’. The course you are about to undertake uses a hybrid model. This means that some of the group may be online (Zoom) and some in person, for part or all of the module.

What will I study?

• Philosophy and principles of palliative care.
• The importance of thorough holistic assessment.
• Transition to positive palliative care approach.
• Inter-agency working and coordination of care.
• Enhanced communication skills, emotional intelligence.
• Utilisation of localised end of life enablers in all care settings.
• Professional accountability, the law and ethical decision-making.
• Advance care, and anticipatory clinical management, planning.
• Spirituality, culture and diversity – spiritual distress, assessment and care.
• Effective symptom assessment and management.
• Care needs of families, carer support and bereavement.

How will I be assessed?

Students will have opportunity to undertake informal peer presentations and case discussions during their study to prepare them for the summative assessment.

The module is summatively assessed by the submission of a written essay containing a critical report on the application of learning to the student’s own clinical practice, which meets all the learning outcomes. Notional 4,000 words.

On successful completion you will:

Critically appraise the current national drivers, guidance and local healthcare processes supporting individuals with poor prognosis, whose potential for recovery is uncertain or who are thought likely to be dying.

Critically evaluate the evidence, expected skills, strategies and resources necessary to effectively support an individual and those important to them, in advanced progressive and life limiting disease.

Critically appraise the clinical, legal and ethical challenges that arise in providing holistic care and symptom management in caring for the dying.

Study dates and venues

How to apply

Module availability varies from year to year and will be subject to minimum student numbers being achieved. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Due to the popularity of some modules it may be that the module is fully booked when your application is received. We will include your details on a waiting list and allocate you a place on the next available intake.

We encourage you to apply as early as possible to give you the best chance to obtain a place on your preferred cohort, module applications will close as soon as the module is full. Applications received within two weeks of the start date may have to be considered for a later cohort.

For details of how to apply, please visit the apply page.

Contact us

For further information, contact [email protected] or Professor Barbara Jack, Academic Programme Lead: [email protected].

This module will take place at Queenscourt Hospice, Southport.

You can contact the Medical School email on [email protected].

Pathways

This module can be taken as standalone or is a core module for:

• PGCert Integrated Palliative and End of Life Care
• MSc Integrated Palliative and End of Life Care

This module can be an optional module for:

• MSc Leadership Development
• MSc Advanced Clinical Practice