The end of March saw the culmination of the 2015-17 European Palliative Care Academy – Leadership Course in Brasov, Romania. 19 participants from a total of 10 European countries successfully graduated and were awarded at a ceremony on the last day of the course week. Also at the ceremony were Mirela Nemtanu, CEO of Hospice Casa Sperantei and Alina Pascu, vice-dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Transalvania.

The week itself, which was held at Hospice Casa Sperantei, dealt with the important topic of advocacy, key to the international development of palliative care. Participants were taught by experts in the areas of advocacy techniques, analysing laws and policies, writing briefing notes and position papers, identifying targets for advocacy and building coalitions among other things. In addition to the work on advocacy, participants also concluded their sessions on personal development and the work on their personal projects, which are both longitudinal elements of the Leadership Course. Moreover, the Local Best Practice module was brought to a close by introducing participants to the important work done by Hospice Casa Sperantei. Sessions were held by many experts in palliative care including Professor Daniela Mosoiu, EAPC board member and Frank Ferris, board member of the International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care and member of the EUPCA Advisory Board.

The week was seen by participants to have been a success and particularly praised were the team’s enthusiasm and energy and the overall organisation of the course week, “Very well organised, skilled and very professional lecturers who made every participant feel involved and very active” (EUPCA Participant, 2015-17). Participants were thankful for the inspiring work they were able to see at Hospice Casa Sperantei, “I found your attitude to working in the hospice, providing so much training and working so hard in advocacy absolutely great and it pushes me to do as much as I can in my country. I want to express to you all my gratitude for this great experience. Thank you to everyone, to the Romanian team and to all EUPCA colleagues” (EUPCA Participant 2015-17).

The whole EUPCA team wises all the best to the graduates of the 2015-17 Leadership Course .

Applications are currently being accepted for the EUPCA – Leadership Course 2017-19. Click here for more information.

Current EUPCA participant, Irena Laska, tells us about her work in palliative care and how some of the experiences she has gained throughout her time with the European Palliative Care Academy have inspired her to affect positive change in palliative care in her community:

As part of the EUPCA Leadership Course 2015-17, I spent an observation week at St. Christopher’s Hospice in London. I learned a lot and believe me, it was one of the most memorable and profitable experiences of my entire career as a C.E.O. in palliative care. As professionals in palliative care, we are constantly trying to ease people’s suffering and to give them opportunities to live fully until they die. It was my experience at St. Christopher’s that helped me understand that there is a place for everyone to be able to achieve this in palliative care. Inspired by what I saw at St Christopher’s on striving to provide quality of life to all patients, I have been putting all my effort into fulfilling one of our community’s goals – to give our patients a new, small, well-equipped gym as part of a palliative care facility in Korça City, Albania.

Our aim is always to ensure patients the opportunity for choice and autonomy within the limitations of their advancing illness and the building of this modest gym was welcomed by all of them. We chose the equipment carefully in order to give our patients some possibilities to meet their goals and priorities in different phases of their treatment. We carefully selected suitable equipment to fulfil the needs of the patients:

There is an indoor exercise bike in the corner of the gym. It is a lower-impact workout bike in order to keep stress in patients’ joints to a minimum. It also has on-board heart rate programmes.
In the opposite corner we have put the Nordic track treadmill, which provides a professional workout designed for our patients. It has on-board workouts and heart rate programmes as well as a built-in audio point for listening to the radio.

A polished pinewood robust Swedish ladder, which is part of the standard inventory in occupational and physiotherapy practices, is mounted on the wall next to the door of the gym. As a multifunctional device, the wall bars are used for mobilizing our patients who may be too old or feeble to support themselves securely when, for example, they are using the indoor mini trampoline that is also part of the new gym. The patients can start with a simple, low-impact bounce where their feet never even leave the surface of the trampoline. We have learned that jogging on a mini trampoline feels less strenuous than jogging on a treadmill, so this is very appropriate for the users of the gym.

Part of the inventory is also a stability ball (also called exercise ball, balance ball or fitness ball) which is great for getting back into shape after an operation because it can reduce muscle and spinal strain during certain movements.

Dumbbells of 1 kg and 2kg are there for those who may want to train one side of the body in order to cure any strength imbalances they have developed. They may also use the resistance bands to train their arms or legs and can climb up and down the stairs in the corner of the room. The posters on the walls are very inspiring and colourful and enhance the optimistic atmosphere in the gym.

We are very proud of the work which has been put into the development of this special space for our patients. Thank you to the staff of St. Christopher’s and to the EUPCA programme for your help and support in developing palliative care services in Albania.

Author: Irena Laska

Iryna Slugotska is a current participant of the European Palliative Care Academy- Leadership Course. She works as a physician at the Regional Clinical Palliative Care Centre in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. In this Report, Iryna tells us about an exciting palliative care art project which her efforst helped support.

The organisation of a palliative care team at home is a step towards creating an integrated system providing palliative care for adults and children. It is important not only to help palliative patients, but also to provide the same comprehensive assistance to members of their families. Help should be given in a convenient place and at a suitable time. Besides this, patients and family members should be able to contact the medical staff on the phone day and night. The first floor of a residential building provided to the palliative care centre by Ivano-Frankivsk City Hall is just such a place. However, we were then faced with the problem of the general repair of this building. The funds for this were, unfortunately, not provided by the budget.

To overcome this obstacle, our team decided to spread the information about it through Facebook. To our surprise, some people from the acting industry from Ivano-Frankivsk and Kyiv responded – the director of our theatre Rostislav Derzhypilskyy and one of Ukraine’s leading actresses, Irma Vitovska. They created a Performance, “Oscar and the Pink Lady” at the Ivano- Frankivsk  theatre. It is  the story about a boy with cancer and the Pink Lady, who fulfils his wishes. We shared information about the Performance on Twitter, Facebook and through other forms of media. As a result, this art Project provided a charity show of this performance in different cities of Ukraine. It was organised and shown in Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv,  Lviv,  Chernivtsi and Rivne during 2016.  If you would like to see part of the performance, please click here.

The costs raised from these charity shows funded the repairs and construction of a hospice home advisory department. To put the icing on the cake, this art project was honoured with an award for being the best among all charitable projects in Ukraine in 2016. 

Author: Iryna Slugotska

Are you a palliative care expert who wants to make a difference and is looking for an advanced international training opportunity in palliative care?

Then the European Palliative Care Academy might be what you are looking for. With our innovative palliative care leadership curriculum we can help you develop your theoretical knowledge and skills in the fields of personal and project development, teamwork, research and advocacy. The European Palliative Care Academy was initiated by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and is a joint project of the four academic centres:

· University Hospital of Cologne/ Germany

· King’s College London, Cicely Saunders Institute/ United Kingdom

· Nicolaus Copernicus University Toruń / Poland

· Hospice Casa Sperantei, Brasov/ Romania

Together, these institutions have worked closely together to develop a curriculum aimed at emerging palliative care leaders of all professional backgrounds from across Europe. The new course starts in September 2017. Deadline for applications is June 11th 2017. For further information on the European Palliative Care Academy and the application process, please visit EUPCA’s website.

We’ll also be at the EAPC Conference in Madrid in May where we’ll be happy to discuss EUPCA and the forthcoming course with you. See you there!

Yours faithfully,

Prof. Raymond Voltz, Dr Jonathan Koffman, Rev. Dr Piotr Krakowiak and Prof. Daniela Mosoui

Juan-Pablo Leiva Santos is a current participant of the European Palliative Care Academy and for his personal project he is designing a curriculum to support death issues for firemen in Spain. He is currently conducting research on the needs of firemen concerning death and dying in their jobs:

“…I found children in a crash car. They were dead. It became dreadful to me because I also have children. It is impossible not to feel it and more challenging to carry on when children are also victims. When I was back home, I pretended that all was going OK… but for some reason my wife knew it was not…”
42 y.o. Fireman

As part of his time with the EUPCA he conducted an Observaiton Week to gain further insight for his project. In this short report he tells us about his time at the University of Bradford in England:

The five days full time work-experience at the University of Bradford has now come to an end. Thanks to the European Palliative Care Academy (EUPCA), I had this unique opportunity to be mentored by Prof. Allan Kellehear at the University of Bradford. I had the opportunity and time to exclusively work on my personal project. I was focused on:

• Performing a qualitative analysis data from focus group methodology used to understand needs and resources firemen have in Spain regarding death & dying.
• Planning which journal to send the manuscript to.
• Designing the curriculum after doing the thematic analysis.
• Writing an abstract to send to the EAPC 2017 in Madrid.
• Doing a wide literature search review on Health, Psycho, Social and Trade & Industry search engines.

The Observation Week and asking Professor Allan Kellehear to mentor me on this project at the University of Bradford has been one of the most worthwhile things I could ever do. Working in a subject area related to compassionate community was a fantastic experience full of learning in a wonderful human atmosphere. The Heaton Mount facilities at the University of Bradford, were essentially unique as a host. This inspiring place provided me a special kind of feeling of well-being which pushed me more to get inspired in my work. Following my Observation Week, the conclusion remains that there is a substantial need for education regarding death and dying issues for firemen. This shall be addressed in the further work on the project to establish a curriculum to fill this educational gap for firemen in Spain.

Learn more about Juan-Pablo’s project

Learn more about the personal project

Authors: Juan-Pablo Leiva Santos and Heather Graham

Matthias Villalobos, a current participant of the EUPCA, conducted his Observation Week at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital NHS Trust in London. Matthias wanted to gain further insight for his personal project on the implementation of a palliative care consultation for patients in oncological trials, “I decided to apply for the observation week at this institution as it surely represents internationally renowned best practice.” Guy’s and St Thomas’ are two of the largest hospitals in central London and constitute one common NHS Trust. St Thomas’ is one of the oldest health care facilities in London including the first palliative care team in a UK general hospital founded by Dr Thelma Bates in 1977. Guy’s is one of the country’s leading cancer centres, treating more cancer patients than any other provider in London. Consequently, it also offers a large portfolio of clinical trials (phase I-III), with more than 1500 patients participating each year.

During his observation week he had the opportunity for extensive exchanges with many different team members and was allowed to accompany the team during ward rounds and consultations at the Palliative Care Out-Patient Department both at St Thomas’ and Guy’s. Due to the fact that palliative care is fully integrated in the healthcare system at the visited hospital, Matthias was able to learn valuable lessons for his project and his routine work in Germany at the University Hospital of Heidelberg. Although Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital NHS Trust did not have a specific palliative care consultation for patients in oncological Trials, they acted as a bridge to the palliative care team. Matthias remains convinced of the benefits of honest communication with facilitation of advance care planning and early pro-active discussions about end-of-life treatment for oncological patients and feels that this communication should not be “interrupted” by clinical trials. All in all, Matthias summarized his Observation Week as a “most valuable experience” and thanks Dr. Teresa Beynon and her entire team for their support and cooperation.

 
Learn more about Matthias’ project

Learn more about the personal project

Authors: Matthias Villalobos and Heather Graham

It was a few weeks ago now but we would like to share some of the photos we took at our reception at the EAPC congress in Dublin. We had a great time meeting new faces and seeing the older ones :)

We are delighted to announce a new leadership award in palliative care. We are looking for evidence of leadership capacity building programmes worldwide that are striving to develop palliative care at a time when it is needed most. These initiatives could take place in your hospice, hospital or other palliative care institution.

The ‘Award for Palliative Care Leadership Programmes’ will be awarded to a training programme which best fulfills the stipulated criteria:

• Awareness and where possible evidence of a needs assessment which address national challenges
• Demonstrable evidence of national and/or international impact in palliative care
• Examples of accreditation or scientific awards, if any
• The ability to present a comprehensive leadership programme in palliative care which includes e.g. (Project) management, leadership theory, decision-making, personal development, research
• A portfolio of evidence based teaching, (clinical) experience exchange, best practice that demonstrates a range of diverse and innovative teaching methods to enhance knowledge, skills, attitudes and integrate theory and practice
• Strong evidence of quality assurance and outcome measurement programmes to identify process and assess impact
• Be able to show a multidisciplinary team in action.
• Provide evidence of an infrastructure (facilities, course management, student support, alumni) which demonstrates sustainability

An independent jury of internationally renowned experts from the EAPC and EUPCA will select the winner.

The winner will be announced at an award ceremony that will take place during the EAPC congress in Madrid 2017. A representative of the winning institution will receive registration, accommodation and travel costs to attend the three day conference and the ceremony.

If you believe that your institution fulfills our criteria and wish to be considered for this exciting award then the application process opens on 15th September 2016.

The application form and further information will be published on the EUPCA website soon.

We are only a month away from the 9th EAPC World Research Congress which is being held in Dublin on the 9th-11th June. The European Palliative Care Academy will be attending the congress and will have a stand in the non-commercial exhibition area for the duration of the congress. We are having a small reception at the stand on Thursday 9th at 6pm. We would love to see lots of faces, both old and new, and talk to you about the course and what we offer.

We are very happy to announce that the EUPCA Leadership Course has been awarded the Quality Seal by the Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation (FIBAA).

The process of reporting the ins and outs of our course culminated in an on-site visit which took place in September during the first course week in Cologne. A full day programme allowed FIBAA to speak with steering committee members, current and past participants and to take a look around our course facilities here in Cologne. In their final report, FIBAA named several criteria for which EUPCA exceeded the requirements including: international orientation of the course, practical business experience of the teaching staff and cooperation with academic institutions or enterprises.

This certification is a positive step for EUPCA and we are very appreciative to our steering committee members, lecturers and participants for supporting all the hard work.