Undergraduate and Postgraduate medical education and training (2021)

The EAPC Medical Education task force was established to develop recommendations for undergraduate and post-graduate curricula for medical education in Palliative Care. The task force has been involved in the development of several key documents including the “Curriculum in Palliative Care for Undergraduate Medical Education – Recommendations of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC)” and “Recommendations for the development of postgraduate curricula leading to certification in Palliative Medicine”.

The task force continues to work on a framework of recommendations rather than a concrete curriculum, leaving each country to adapt the mandatory contents to local or national settings and to accommodate the fact that in the definition of palliative medicine across European countries is variable and is either specialist or sub-specialist.

The group continues to work on a number of projects related to palliative medical education. These include:

1. Contributing to the development of a questionnaire in relation to the existing structures of PC in Europe in conjunction with the Palliative Care in Europe Mapping Task Force.
2. A proposal for a pilot study to assess the preparedness of newly qualified physicians to practice palliative care.
3. A proposal for the ongoing revision of the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula
4. A proposal to consider inter-professional education
5. A proposal to consider a European Palliative Care training programme