Bus rounds for palliative care education in the community

Increasingly, patients with cancer are dying at home and in continuing care facilities. The purpose of bus rounds is to provide continuing education to physicians and nurse palliative care consultants, to familiarize family physicians with the delivery of care in these settings and to educate family medicine and specialty residents as well as medical students. A total of 18 4-hour bus rounds took place during 1996. A mean of 13 (range 9 to 17) participants attended, to discuss a mean of 3.5 (range 2 to 4) patients and 4.5 (range 3 to 8) journal articles. A questionnaire was filled out anonymously by 18 first-time medical and 24 first-time nursing participants. On a scale from 1 (worst) to 5 (best), they gave the rounds an overall rating of 5 (range 4 to 5). The mean cost per round was $245.40. The authors conclude that bus rounds provide an opportunity for intensive exposure to community-based learning for physicians, nurses and students and are highly satisfactory from the participants' perspective.