Innovation in Palliative Care Undergraduate Medical Education – first multiplier event

The first multiplier event ‘Innovation in palliative care undergraduate medical education’, was held on Wednesday 22 May 2018  from  2.30pm -6.00pm in the Estrel Hotel & Congress Centre, Berlin, Germany. The aim of the multiplier event was to highlight the EDUPALL project to an international audience of palliative care professionals. The event was linked to the 16th European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) World Congress in Berlin, Germany which took place from the 23 – 25 May 2019.  The EAPC World Congress attracted over 3100 delegates.

The multiplier event was organized by EAPC and the EDUPALL consortium. The event was promoted widely on the congress website, book of abstracts and on social media.  In addition, the EDUPALL consortium targeted delegates from countries where palliative care is not fully integrated in the academic training of medical undergraduates and where there is no standardized palliative care curriculum. The meeting was open to all delegates attending the EAPC World Congress with an interest in undergraduate education.

The events programme focused on highlighting the project and presentations included:

  • The development of an Undergraduate Palliative Medicine Curriculum
  • Resources for academic staff
  • Resources for students: Online course
  • Experience of implementing the project
  • Panel Discussion:
    • Putting the project results in to practice
    • How to integrate EDUPALL in universities
    • How to integrate EDUPALL in other countries

In addition, Professor Eduardo Bruera (USA) gave a lecture entitled ‘Nurturing future leaders in palliative medicine: How can education help to address global challenges in palliative care?’

128 participants attended the multiplier event with a further 24 representatives from EDUPALL partner organisations. Participants were from 48 countries from across the world.

Using the audience response software Mentimeter (www.mentimeter.com) the following additional information was gathered from participants.

  • The majority of attendees (77%) were from a medical background
  • 67% were currently teaching or planning to teach undergraduate medical students in the near future and a further 15% were teaching other students
  • 75% of those teaching undergraduate students were responsible for teaching palliative medicine/ palliative care
  • Teaching technologies currently being employed by some participants included webinars, recorded lectures, virtual learning environments (e.g. Moodle), whiteboard animations, Wikis, online glossaries and polling apps

Each delegate who attended the meeting received a USB key containing the EDUPALL projects curriculum in English, German and Romanian and lesson plans in English.. Additional keys were also distributed to interested parties attending the EAPC congress, along with contact details of the project leads.