Education in children's palliative care across Europe and internationally

Abstract

Ongoing education and training is essential in health care, particularly in palliative care, which is still expanding both in terms of its global reach and its scope. Children's palliative care (CPC) is a specialty in its own right, but one that is still relatively new, and so appropriate and ongoing education and training of CPC staff is especially important. However, such education and training is not always accessible to those who need it, and only recently have significant attempts been made to quantify the extent and nature of these deficiencies. This paper discusses CPC education and training from a European and global perspective, highlighting some of the principles and challenges. It also looks at the recent efforts of the European Association for Palliative Care and the International Children's Palliative Care Network to attain a clearer picture of the state of global CPC education, presenting some initial findings from their research and discussing preliminary recommendations and future directions.