An Interprofessional Educational Workshop in

1
An Interprofessional Educational Workshop in
Palliative Care for Students Sharon Kaasalainen,
RN, PhD, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing,
McMaster University Margaret Brockett, BSR (OT),
EdD, Assistant Professor, School of
Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University, and
Consultant and Educator, Professional and Health
Care Ethics, Oakville, Ontario Denise Marshall,
MD, Director, Division of Palliative Care,
McMaster University Catherine Bucci, HBSc,
MRT(T), Clinical Trials Radiation Therapist,
Juravinski Centre Andrea Deakin, RN, HBScN,
Curriculum Coordinator, Practical Nursing
Program, Mohawk College

• Areas for Improvement
• Need to improve technological aspect of the
  workshop
• (i.e., quality of the audio and video)
• Need more information regarding roles ascribed
  to
• each profession related to palliative care
• Group discussion was not that effective

• The Planning Process
• Began early - 10 months before event
• Involved faculty from the programs to
• - Provide input to curriculum relevant to
  their discipline
• - Direct access to their respective students
  and curriculum
• planners to enhance communication about the
  workshop
• Held regular planning meetings every 2 months
• Strong administrative support for organization
  of the workshop

• Challenges in Planning
• Finding a day that was suitable for all
  programs
• Finding a location that was suitable to
  accommodate large
• numbers of students (400-800)
• Balancing didactic and group interaction
• Limited time (a day) to cover a large amount of
  material about
• palliative care

• Student Recruitment
• Promoted by faculty
• Advertised by internet and by flyer
• Advance registration with limited enrolment
• MD students advised workshop was required

Workshop Content 1. Suffering - Types of
suffering - Relief of suffering - Communicating
effectively 2. Pain Fears and Reality - Define
pain - Personal experiences of pain -
Management of physical pain 3. End of Life
Issues - Whose responsibility is it to talk about
end of life issues? - How should we speak to end
of life questions? 4. The Patients Story or the
Medical Story - Personal experiences of losing
someone - Supporting one another at the end of
life

• Format
• Day-long workshop
• 4 sessions
• Movie clips from the Edge of Being, Wit, and
  Facing Death
• Small group discussion within Interprofessional
  triads
• Palliative care team panel discussion
• Wrap up with guest speaker sharing personal
  reflection based
• on her own experience

• Conclusions
• An Interprofessional workshop is an effective
  strategy for
• introducing students to palliative care
• Students appear to enjoy a variety of
  strategies that
• enhance their learning experiences
• Effective communication (with students and
  among schools
• and programs) is vital to making the workshop
  a success

• Student Evaluations
• 85 of students completed evaluations (192/229)
• 96 of the student rated the workshop as Well
  to Very Well
• in meeting their expectations
• Students stated that the key take away messages
  were
• - Learning more about pain and suffering (19)
  
• - Significance of communication (active
  listening, engaging in
• discussion 18)
• - Recognition of the multidisciplinary aspect
  of palliative care
• (17)

• Strengths of the Workshop
• 31 of the students identified the videos as
  the most useful
• learning experience
• 15 of the students felt that learning about
  different professional
• roles was beneficial
• 9 of the students felt that the input of the
  interprofessional
• teams was helpful and it was a positive aspect
  of their learning