This Taskforce has started its work beginning 2010.

Appropriate and ongoing education and training of staff is an essential component in the provision of care for children requiring palliative care.

The IMPaCCT standards for paediatric pallaitive care in Europe (2007) recommend:

• All professionals and volunteers working in paediatric palliative care should receive comprehensive training and support
• Palliative care training must be a core part of the curriculum for all paediatric healthcare professionals, as well as related sub-specialties
• Each country should develop a national curriculum for all professionals working in paediatric palliative care.
• There must be designated centres of excellence that can provide formal teaching and postgraduate training in all aspects of paediatric palliative care.

There is currently a dearth of information regarding education programmes and courses for healthcare professionals working in paediatric palliative care in Europe. Paediatric palliative care as a speciality is at various stages of development throughout Europe and education programmes and courses in this small but highly specialised field of healthcare are also at different stages. Whilst courses are available in many European countries access to and content of these varies considerably.

This project aims to identify where courses and education programmes are being provided, whether national curricula exist and if so what are the core elements of these programmes that could be adopted by all providers of education. Centres of excellence, where they exist, will be identified, and course curricula scrutinised for core elements.

It has been suggested by a previous EAPC task force that in order to ensure that education programmes meet the needs of those participating, it is essential that the programmes are linked to the heatlhcare needs of the population and the structure of the healthcare system. This calls for those responsible for the development of the programme to have a sound understanding of:

• Paediatric palliative medicine and palliative care
• Principles of adult learning
• Organisational planning
• Partnership between place of care and place of training
• Awareness of the politics of healthcare delivery and
  education at the local level (EAPC Task Force on Nurse Education, 2004)

These issues will also be considered by the Paediatric palliative care education task force.

Description: This project sets out to explore the range of paediatric palliative care educational programmes available across Europe and to draw common themes and elements of these programmes into a core curriculum. Programmes for all healthcare professionals will be considered.

Plan of work:

• Identify education programmes currently provided for healthcare professionals working with children with life-limiting conditions
• Recognise and utilise work of previous EAPC task forces on education including: nurses, physicians, and psychologists
• Compare and identify core components of curricula
• Liaise and collaborate with colleagues throughout Europe regarding education programmes provided

Goal: To produce a core curriculum for healthcare professionals working in paediatric palliative care in Europe

• To gather information on education programmes for healthcare professionals caring for children with life-limiting conditions requiring palliative care in different European countries.
• To identify core components of education programmes currently provided for healthcare professionals caring for children with life-limiting conditions in Europe
• To identify core aspects for curricula and develop a framework for education for healthcare professionals working in paediatric palliative care.

This is a joint project between the EAPC and the Foundation Maruzza Lefebvre d'Ovidio. The Taskforce is a sub-group of the European Steering Committee for Palliative Care in Children of the EAPC and the FMLDO.