Palliative care relieves pain and suffering. Learn strategies and techniques to assess suffering and support patients living with a serious illness.
Suggested by: Coursera (What is Coursera?)
No prior knowledge required
No unnecessary risks
People living with serious, life-limiting chronic illnesses experience significant suffering . Fortunately, new treatments are being developed that may cure some cases and improve the chances of life for many with serious illnesses. However, sick people and their families still experience distressing physical symptoms as well as spiritual, social, and psychological distress.
There is much that can be done to support people to live a good life with a serious and limiting illness, by:
Not Only Hospice covers key terms about the nature of suffering and demonstrates how to assess suffering, demonstrating this with realistic patient scenarios.
Learners will use real-world strategies, tools, and techniques to:
Authentic patient scenarios will be used to allow learners to apply new knowledge and practice new skills that they can implement and integrate into their clinical settings.
Palliative care provides important support for patients and their family caregivers who are facing a serious or disabling illness. Palliative care must be part of the health service to improve quality of life, coping and survival. In this course, you will learn about the nature of suffering and how this concept can help you understand the experience of people with a serious illness. You will then learn skills to communicate more effectively with patients, families and other caregivers, to understand their experiences and provide additional support. In the next module, you will explore your personal values and beliefs and how they affect your work with others. Finally, you will learn how to carry out a comprehensive assessment to understand the needs of people with a serious illness so that you can develop a support plan for them. You will be able to immediately apply these insights, skills and tools in your work with people living with serious illnesses. In later courses, you will learn to relieve pain and other symptoms, such as loss of appetite, shortness of breath and fatigue. In the final course, you will explore ways to alleviate psychosocial-spiritual distress. These courses have prepared you to bring basic palliative care to anyone who needs it.
In this course, you will develop a systemic approach to pain assessment and management in the context of palliative care. By the end of the course, you will be able to:
Palliative care provides important support for people living with serious or life-limiting illnesses and their family carers. In this course, you will learn to use symptom assessment tools to better understand which symptoms are present and which are of most concern. Over the next few weeks you will learn about some of the most common and difficult symptoms such as anorexia (loss of appetite), dyspnoea (shortness of breath), fatigue (weakness), delirium (confusion) and constipation and nausea/vomiting. For each of these symptoms, you will learn about the underlying cause and how people and their families can be supported to manage their symptoms using simple, practical and non-pharmacological approaches, as well as an overview of medications if necessary. You will also be able to help people cope with their emotional reactions to symptoms and loss of function. You will be able to use these insights, skills and tools immediately in your work with people living with serious illnesses. In other courses, you will learn communication skills, individual assessment, how to relieve physical pain, and explore ways to alleviate psychosocial-spiritual distress.
In this course, you will learn how serious, life-threatening illnesses often impact emotional and spiritual well-being. Illness can increase stress as patients and families learn to live with a “new normal” that often focuses on the illness. You will learn how to tell when normal sadness (or grief) becomes something more serious and requires treatment. People with serious illnesses also experience social concerns as their support system—family, friends, and community—is stretched and sometimes even fails. We will talk about resources and skills you can use to help support patients and their families. You will learn about advance care planning, including shared decision-making, setting treatment goals, and writing care plans.
In the final course, you have the opportunity to apply what you have learned in palliative care specializations. Our team has created five activities that are directly related to what you have learned in the course. You will need to talk to someone you know, perhaps a friend or family member, about their experiences living with a serious and limiting illness. You may want to involve several people throughout the five tasks, as each person will have unique experiences.
When you successfully complete all five of these tasks and the rest of the course assignments, you will receive the Coursera Palliative Care Specialist Certificate. More importantly, you will be prepared to help others live well with a serious and limiting illness.
