The use of biographies and stories in paediatric palliative care education

Paediatric palliative care has emerged as a distinct specialty over recent years and, as a consequence, robust and innovative educational programmes are required to further develop the exisitng attitudes and skills of practitioners working within this field. Understanding the experiences of children and families is key to providing quality care in this context and a number of teaching and learning activities have been reported in the literature. This article discusses one such learning activity--the use of parent biographies and stories by students undertaking the paediatric palliative care programme at Queen's University Belfast, UK. Feedback from students indicated that this was a positive learning experience that was both interesting and useful from a practice perspective.