Postgraduate palliative care education and curricular issues in Central Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe: Results from a quantitative study

Abstract

Introduction. The WHO Europe Office, together with the European Association for Palliative Care, is supporting the development of an interdisciplinary core curriculum for health care professionals in the European Region, which is to be given to the countries as a recommendation. Material and methods. Between April and September 2018, a research journey to Central Asia, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe took place. It covered two main tasks: collecting quantitative data using a survey and collecting qualitative data by conducting on-site interviews. This article contains the quantitative part. Experts in palliative care education in 23 countries were invited to fill out a questionnaire. The data received from 23 questions were statistically evaluated by IBM SPSS Statistics 25. Results. 27 surveys received from 21 countries were evaluated. In one-third of the surveyed countries, there is still no postgraduate training in palliative care. The main barriers to the development of educational work are limited political interest, followed by limited educational structures, missing curricula, lack of trainers and the limited healthcare system. For 92.6% of all respondents, a WHO-recommended interdisciplinary postgraduate core curriculum would help promote palliative care in their country. Conclusion. There is a high need for postgraduate education in general and the intended core curriculum in particular. The results of the survey, along with those from the interviews in a later second part of the publication, are essential for the development of a core curriculum.