The development of palliative care education and training for GPs in Yangon, Myanmar: a workshop success

Palliative care is an important but often overlooked component of primary care. In Myanmar, early emergence of palliative care is being seen, however no formal community-based services yet exist. Present challenges include resource scarcity and inadequate education and training.

Our goal was to improve understanding and approach towards palliative care by GPs in Yangon.

An initial survey was performed among 42 GPs in Yangon, Mandalay, and Meiktila in March 2019 demonstrating a gap in current training needs and willingness by GPs for this to be improved. A 2-day workshop, the first ever of its kind, was subsequently designed and held for 20 local GPs, consisting of interactive seminars delivered in Burmese.

Improvement in knowledge and confidence were used as measures of success. A true/false-style quiz was distributed pre- and post-workshop demonstrating a mean total score improvement of 15%. Self-reported confidence rating scores regarding confidence when: 1) managing palliative patients; 2) providing holistic care; and 3) breaking bad news, increased by a mean of 25%.

The greatest outcome from this workshop, by far, was the enthusiasm and awareness it generated, support was even gained from the President of the Myanmar Medical Association despite his initial reservations about developing this area. Ultimately, the workshop behaved as an advocate for the introduction of a regular palliative care lecture into the local Diploma in Family Medicine curriculum; it also spurred a group of GPs to further this work and turn the workshop into a regular teaching event.