Hospice & Palliative Care Certificate Curriculum

Synopsis

In this module, learners will discover wholistic approaches to hospice palliative care and learn how they can support their client emotionally, socially, intellectually, and socially. This module also introduces the concept of the Comfort Basket, the unique skills and talents that each health care provider possesses and uses to support every client.

• Be able to describe emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual symptoms that may occur during the end-of-life process
• Understand support and care strategies for emotional, social, intellectual, and social symptoms common during the end-of-life process
• Be able to identify tools and strategies for creating a comfort basket

Synopsis

This module focuses on wholistically relieving the physical symptoms of death and dying, and introduces medical and non-medical techniques to support clients and their families.

• Be able to describe nonpharmacological comfort measures in the role in the dying client
• Be able to effectively identify and assist with relieving pain

Synopsis

This module will help learners understand how to wholistically support the client and their family in the last weeks and days of the client’s life, as well as how to provide practical and wholistic support after the client has died.

• Identify physical changes and psychosocial implications during the last days and hours
• Identify the physical signs of death
• Identify methods of respecting spiritual and cultural practices related to death and dying after life
• Identify way to provide support for the family of the client’s death and immediately afterward
• Effectively identify and manage sudden and/or expected deaths
• Be able to care for the body following death
• Be able to support the family when death occurs

Synopsis

In this module, learners will explore the concept of grief as a “whole person” experience, identify common responses to grief, and explore supportive strategies to help a grieving person. They will also reflect on the impact of palliative caregiving on their own well-being, and consider self-care strategies.

• Understand different processes of grieving
• Demonstrate communication skills that enable good communication with the dying person, their family and other members of the health care team
• Demonstrate understanding of the key concepts of loss and grief and the implications of viewing dying as a series of losses to the patient, family and caregivers
• Be able to discuss the emotional, intellectual, spiritual, interpersonal and cultural aspects of the dying process
• Understand strategies for supporting the client and family during periods of decline
• Recognize the importance of and understand the concepts of compassion fatigue and self-care
• Recognize the importance of and understand the concepts boundaries in caring for self

Synopsis

This module will introduce learners to the questions involved in the advance care planning process, and encourage reflection on what an advance care plan means to a client and how it affects their ability to face the end-of-life process.

• Develop an understanding of advanced care planning
• Develop an understanding of the role that the substitute decision maker
• Develop an understanding of the role the family has in decision making