New ways to impact primary palliative care practices using online continuing education

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Education
• Palliative Care
• Continuing Medical Education

Background:

• Palliative care (PC) is crucial for patients with serious illnesses and their families.
• Training healthcare professionals in PC enhances patient and provider satisfaction and reduces healthcare costs.
• A continuing education (CE) series was developed to improve primary PC skills among rural healthcare professionals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of a primary PC CE series on participants' knowledge, competence, performance, and commitment to practice change.
• To evaluate differences in outcomes after completing individual CE modules.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive design was employed using a convenience sample of healthcare professionals who registered for and completed at least one module.
• Participants completed demographic questions and an evaluation survey after each module.

Main Results:

• 158 healthcare professionals registered, primarily nurses and social workers, with diverse experience levels but limited PC experience.
• All CE modules improved teamwork skills; modules on cultural aspects and self-care most influenced patient outcome improvement.
• Cultural aspects, care of the actively dying, and advance care planning significantly impacted knowledge, competence, and performance.

Conclusions:

• The primary PC education series effectively improved self-reported skills in teamwork, practice habits, and goal achievement for diverse healthcare professionals.
• Enhanced PC skills facilitate broader integration of PC across various settings and disciplines.
• This initiative aims to increase access to PC services and potentially improve referrals to specialty PC programs.