This eLearning series is designed to refresh or develop team members’ communication skills to provide quality palliative care and end-of-life care in long-term care (LTC) homes. The three courses in the series include interactive case scenarios that reflect the unique setting and context of care delivery in LTC homes.
Overview
Three self-paced courses around 20 minutes in length each.
- Communicating about Hospice Palliative Care
- Coping with Grief
- Building Relationships
This series serves as an introduction to the more comprehensive All-In Palliative Care: The Team Approach to LTC training program. It teaches all interprofessional team members how to recognize palliative care myths, recognize and accommodate the needs of those in mourning, and practice their end-of-life communication skills.
About the Courses
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Course 1: Communicating about Hospice Palliative Care
This course enables interprofessional team members to respond in the most appropriate way to a question or comment from a resident or family member about the purpose of a hospice palliative approach to care. Interprofessional team members will learn how to appropriately define palliative care, recognize palliative care myths and identify communication issues that can arise in different domains of care related to illness and bereavement. Anticipated outcomes include reduced confusion and misunderstanding of the purpose of palliative care from interprofessional team members, residents and loved ones.
Course 2: Coping with Grief
This course enables interprofessional team members to initiate conversations to support residents or family members in mourning. This course also enables interprofessional team members to respond in the most appropriate way to questions or comments from residents or family members about end-of-life issues. Interprofessional team members will learn how to recognize the manifestations of grief, recognize the tasks that people need to complete as they grieve and recognize the needs of those in mourning. Anticipated outcomes include improved ability to initiate and continue end-of-life conversations and increased comfort in talking about death.
Course 3: Building Relationships
This course enables interprofessional team members to use paraphrasing and empathy when responding to a resident or family member in difficult and/or emotionally charged conversations about end-of-life issues. Interprofessional team members will learn how to effectively paraphrase, how to incorporate empathy in their responses and recognize if a situation is outside the boundaries and limits of their professional role. Anticipated outcomes include improved communication skills to build therapeutic relationships with residents and family members and an enhanced understanding of the role that all long-term care interprofessional team members can play in end-of-life communication.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all those who contributed to the development of content for these courses.
- Ruth Richardson, RN, Palliative Nurse Educator, Algonquin College
- Michelle Jones, Coordinator, Education and Staff Development, City of Toronto
- Ontario CLRI Supporting Diversity and Inclusion in Long-Term Care Advisory Group
- GEVC Inc.
