Children's palliative care education and training: developing an education standard framework and audit

Area of Science:

• Palliative Care
• Medical Education
• Healthcare Competencies

Background:

• Recommendations from UK Parliament and experts highlighted the need for aligned children's palliative care guidance and competencies.
• A Children's Palliative Care Education and Training Action Group was established in 2019 across the UK and Ireland to address these recommendations.
• The group aimed to establish core principles for standardizing children's palliative care education and training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a revised children's palliative care competency framework.
• To standardize education and training in children's palliative care.
• To agree on core principles of practice for children's palliative care.

Main Methods:

• The Action Group convened over four meetings to review existing evidence, guidance, and competency documents.
• Competencies were mapped to agreed-upon levels of developing knowledge and skills.
• Learning outcomes, indicative program content, and assessment examples were developed based on the mapping process.

Main Results:

• A four-tiered framework was developed: Public Health, Universal, Core, and Specialist levels.
• Each level includes four learning outcomes focusing on communication, interprofessional collaboration, symptom management, and self-care.
• An audit tool was created for quality assurance, and the framework is accessible internationally via the International Children's Palliative Care Network website.

Conclusions:

• The developed framework has garnered international interest following its launch in the UK, Ireland, and globally.
• This represents the first international effort to coordinate children's palliative care education.
• The framework uniquely incorporates lay carer education and public health considerations into children's palliative care training.