Access to palliative medicine training for Canadian family medicine residents

The authors conducted a nine-item mail questionnaire of the 16 Canadian family medicine teaching programme directors to determine the accessibility and operation of palliative care education for their respective family medicine residents. All 16 faculties of medicine responded (100%). The survey rev...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Palliative medicine 1998-01, Vol.12 (1), p.23-27
Main Authors: Oneschuk, Doreen, Bruera, Eduardo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access
Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy
Biological and medical sciences
Canada
Cancer
Clinical death. Palliative care. Organ gift and preservation
Colleges & universities
Education
Education, Medical, Graduate
Family Practice - education
Humans
Medical sciences
Medical students
Medicine
Pain management
Palliative Care
Palliative medicine
Public speaking
Questionnaires
Schools, Medical
Teaching - methods
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Summary:The authors conducted a nine-item mail questionnaire of the 16 Canadian family medicine teaching programme directors to determine the accessibility and operation of palliative care education for their respective family medicine residents. All 16 faculties of medicine responded (100%). The survey revealed that while all universities offer elective time in palliative care only five out of 16 (31%) have a mandatory rotation. The median durations of the mandatory and elective rotations are limited to two and three-and-a-half weeks, respectively. The majority of the universities offer formal lectures in palliative care (12/16, 75%) and educational reading material (13/16, 81%), with the main format in 14/16 (87%) of the sites being case-based learning. The two most common sites for teaching to occur for the residents are the community/outpatient environment and an acute palliative care unit. Fifty-six per cent (9/16) of the universities have designated faculty positions for palliative medicine with a median number of two positions per site. Only one centre offers a specific palliative medicine examination during the rotation. Feedback from the residents regarding their respective palliative medicine programmes were positive overall. Findings from our survey indicate an ongoing need for improved education in palliative medicine at the postgraduate level.
ISSN:0269-2163
1477-030X
DOI:10.1191/026921698669739412