Increasing access to children's palliative care education through e-learning: a review of the ICPCN experience

Education is integral to the development of children's palliative care (CPC) globally; thus, the International Children's Palliative Care Network (ICPCN) developed a training programme including face-to-face and e-learning programmes to increase access to CPC. A review of ICPCN's e-learning programmes was undertaken in April/May 2018. At the time of writing, there are seven courses available, with more scheduled to be released in the near future. All courses are available in English, with some available in other languages, including Mandarin, Czech and Dutch. Between May 2016 and April 2018, 1501 individuals accessed the courses from 96 countries (39% nurses, 28% doctors). English was the prevalent language used (74%), followed by Spanish (8.5%). To date, over 3106 participants have accessed the e-learning programme from 124 countries. An evaluation in 2015/16 found that >80% of respondents said the courses were clear, understandable, rated them highly and found them useful. Some 75% of respondents reported improved knowledge, skills and change in attitude, while 61% reported a change in practice. The ICPCN e-learning platform is an innovative way of improving knowledge and understanding of CPC, thereby increasing the accessibility and availability of CPC.