An EAPC white paper on multi-disciplinary education for spiritual care in palliative care

Abstract

Background: The EAPC White Paper addresses the issue of spiritual care education for all palliative care professionals. It is to guide health care professionals involved in teaching or training of palliative care and spiritual care; stakeholders, leaders and decision makers responsible for training and education; as well as national and local curricula development groups. Methods: Early in 2018, preliminary draft paper was written by members of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) spiritual care reference group inviting comment on the four core elements of spiritual care education as outlined by Gamondi et al. (2013) in their paper on palliative care core competencies. The preliminary draft paper was circulated to experts from the EAPC spiritual care reference group for feedback. At the second stage feedback was incorporated into a second draft paper and experts and representatives of national palliative care organizations were invited to provide feedback and suggest revisions. The final version incorporated the subsequent criticism and as a result, the Gamondi framework was explored and critically revised leading to updated suggestions for spiritual care education in palliative care. Results: The EAPC white paper points out the importance of spiritual care as an integral part of palliative care and suggests incorporating it accordingly into educational activities and training models in palliative care. The revised spiritual care education competencies for all palliative care providers are accompanied by the best practice models and research evidence, at the same time being sensitive towards different development stages of the palliative care services across the European region. Conclusions: Better education can help the healthcare practitioner to avoid being distracted by their own fears, prejudices, and restraints and attend to the patient and his/her family. This EAPC white paper encourages and facilitates high quality, multidisciplinary , academically and financially accessible spiritual care education to all palliative care staff.

Nursing education on palliative care across Europe: Results and recommendations from the EAPC Taskforce on preparation for practice in palliative care nursing across the EU based on an online-survey and country reports

“…physicians, psychologists, physiotherapists, social workers and chaplains) using comparable three-level frameworks for palliative care education derived from the nursing guideline. [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] It was recognized that there are clear elements of palliative care education and core competencies for practice that all healthcare professionals should have. 48,49 Furthermore, the consolidation of national improvement programmes for palliative care in various countries, as well as reforms that occurred in educational programmes due to the 'Bologna Process', might have affected palliative care nursing education.…”

The development of a consensus‐based spiritual care education standard for undergraduate nursing and midwifery students: An educational mixed methods study

“…At Viaa University Netherlands, the Standard has been embedded in the E‐learning programmes for post‐registration nurses and specialist spiritual care practitioners. One of the tools in the Toolkit is recommended by the EAPC in its White Paper for the education of multidisciplinary palliative care practitioners across Europe (Best et al., 2020). The EPICC Standard is providing a frame of reference for policy making within professional organizations and healthcare organizations.…”

What is spiritual care? Professional perspectives on the concept of spiritual care identified through group concept mapping

“…Here SC is seen as care directed towards the spiritual needs which people may experience in case of severe illness with similar initiatives in other realms of healthcare. 51 …”