The Perspectives on Including Palliative Care in the Indian Undergraduate Physiotherapy Curriculum

Abstract

According to the guidelines which were published by WHO in 2008, palliative care has been defined as "An approach that improves the quality of life of the patients and their families who face the problems which are associated with life-threatening illnesses, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of an early identification, an impeccable assessment and the treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual" . The intervention which is provided as a part of the palliative care has to be provided by health professionals who strictly work as a part of multidisciplinary team and have been specifically trained to an optimal level of competency in the field.

Inclusion of palliative care in Indian undergraduate physiotherapy curriculum-course guidelines and content

“…This can be taught as a part of a subject or as a different subject at the undergraduate level. [9] The subsequent article will be dealing with this.…”

“…[10111213141516] Palliative care is now considered in undergraduate medical, nursery, and physiotherapy training in many Western countries. [391011121718] Great Britain is one of the countries where palliative medicine is a specialty and accordingly curriculum is designed too. There are quite a few published articles on palliative care education in undergraduate medical and nursing schools and they all agree that palliative care education has to be included in the undergraduate curriculum.…”

“…Veqar has discussed the importance of palliative care education in physiotherapy curriculum. [9] In Indian literature one article was found which compared nursing, medical, and allied profession (physiotherapy and occupational therapy) students in their understanding of palliative care[26] and one was to find out the effect of a short-term training course of palliative care on physiotherapy graduates. [20] There are a few studies which have reported specific condition awareness etc., such as cancer and AIDS[2728] but not much has been reported on intervention and outcome measures.…”

Do we need a more inclusive model for understanding Ethics in palliative care in the developing countries?

“…This has made pain management a very difficult issue. This problem has been further exaggerated by the lack of awareness amongst professionals regarding pain associated with end of life [9,10,11]. Another aspect is home care in the traditional societies where the family and the patient would prefer home care over hospitalization.…”

“…The movement of palliative care is fairly new in the developing countries like India, Pakistan and some Middle Eastern countries [9][10][11][12].A mapping project was commissioned by the Worldwide Palliative care Alliance to present the development of palliative care services in the world. The report placed Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives in group 1(no known activity), Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Group 3a (isolated palliative care provision) and India and Nepal in Group 3b (generalized palliative care provision) [13].…”