Palliative Care Training in Social Work Education: An Exploration of Stakeholder Perspectives and Curriculum Review

Social work practice in palliative, rehabilitation and long-term care settings has long been recognised as an important component of healthcare service delivery. However, limited studies have explored the preparedness for palliative care social work in post-graduate social work education in India.

Seven semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with professional social workers working in various palliative care settings in India to assess their educational preparedness for palliative care. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The collected data were thematically analysed. Subsequently, a review of the postgraduate social work curriculum in universities recognised by the University Grants Commission was conducted using template analysis.

A lack of educational preparedness of social work practitioners in end-of-life (EOL) care is identified through the in-depth interviews. The major themes from the interviews included content on palliative and EOL in social work curricula, fieldwork exposure to EOL, continuous education programmes, job education training and development of basic therapeutic skills. The review of curriculum using template analysis revealed that out of the 521 (Central and State) universities registered on the website, 25 had palliative care components incorporated into their curriculum. In these curricula, most included the content as part of the medical and psychiatric social work specialisation training. The curriculum made limited reference to the supervised practicum in this field.

With the increasing recognition of the need for palliative and long-term care and the integral role of psychosocial care in these settings, there is a need to acknowledge the current lack of preparedness expressed by the practitioners in the field and to work towards a well-articulated training curriculum with an equal focus on content and skill building in social work education.