Identifying patients with palliative care needs: training healthcare professionals in South India

This study describes and evaluates a comprehensive training programme to improve identification of patients for palliative care (PC) using the Supportive and PC Indicators Tool - Low Income Settings (SPICT-LIS).

The 2-day (3 hours each) training was for healthcare professionals (HCPs) working in a family medicine service unit, and it consisted primarily of didactic sessions on early identification of patients with PC needs using SPICT-LIS, case-based learning on its application, familiarisation with general PC principles and ongoing mentorship. The training was evaluated using structured questionnaires before and after the training programme.

58 HCPs were trained. The mean age was 35.55 years (SD=9.08), and the mean years of work in family medicine was 7.51 years. Before the training, only 33% were familiar with the SPICT-LIS, and 66% were confident in identifying patients with PC needs, which improved to 100% and 97% post-training, respectively. After the training, all participants agreed that using the SPICT-LIS in clinical practice is feasible.

Training HCPs in the family medicine setting to use SPICT-LIS is useful and can improve their confidence in the early identification of patients with PC needs. HCPs found SPICT-LIS a feasible tool for use in clinical practice.