What are social work students being taught about palliative care?

Abstract

ObjectivePalliative social workers have taken steps to increase the numbers of social workers trained and competent to deliver effective psychosocial palliative care. Despite these developments, masters of social work (MSW) programs have only begun to develop curricula preparing students for entry-level practice. This study sought to determine the type and extent of content areas included in MSW courses dedicated to palliative care or with content related to palliative care practice.MethodA cross-sectional study using an online questionnaire was conducted. All 248 accredited MSW programs in the United States and 32 programs in Canada were invited to participate. Participants were asked to name the courses in their MSW program that were dedicated to, or included content on, palliative care, and submit the syllabi for these courses. Data comprised course content for each class session and required readings. A grounded theory approach was used to identify the topics covered.ResultOf the 105 participating programs that responded to the survey, 42 submitted 70 syllabi for courses with at least some palliative care content. There were 29 topics identified. The most common topic was grief, loss, and bereavement, followed closely by behavioral and mental health issues, and supporting family and friends; cultural perspectives and advance care planning were also common topics. For the 10 syllabi from courses dedicated to palliative care, supporting family was the most common topical area, followed closely by interprofessional practice and advance care planning.Significance of resultsAlthough there are many challenges to introducing palliative care content into MSW programs, including unqualified faculty and competing course material and electives of equally compelling content, there are model curricula for dedicated palliative care courses. With the large growth of palliative care programs, the time is ripe to add specialty palliative care courses and to add palliative care content into existing courses.

A qualitative interpretive meta-synthesis of social workers’ experience in end-of-life care

“…Finally, it is anticipated that findings from this QIMS study could augment end-of-life care content in undergraduate social work education. Currently, there is limited inclusion of end-of-life care material within tertiary social work education (Burke & Currin-McCulloch, 2019; Simons & Park-Lee, 2009; Stein et al, 2019; Turner et al, 2015). This results in emerging social work practitioners entering the end-of-life care field with limited content knowledge, necessitating on-the-job and professional development training.…”

“…Additional challenges arise from the organizational context of end-of-life care. Social workers enter end-of-life care organizations with minimal content knowledge from their tertiary social work education (Burke & Currin-McCulloch, 2019; Simons & Park-Lee, 2009; Stein et al, 2019; Turner et al, 2015). Moreover, on-the-job and professional development training opportunities to develop end-of-life care social workers’ knowledge and skills are often limited (Muskat et al, 2017).…”

Development of an intervention (PICASO) to optimise the palliative care capacity of social workers in Flanders: a study protocol based on phase I of the Medical Research Council framework

“…Additionally, professionals from other disciplines do not know what social work has to offer. [28][29][30][31] This is a major problem since social workers may be reluctant to take initiative while other professionals may also not involve them in palliative care practice.…”

“…On the other hand, they often have little confidence in the usefulness of their social work practices in palliative care 42 45. These are logical consequences of the poor amount of course content on palliative care in social work education programmes,31 46 resulting in the need for additional training after graduation 45…”

A Mixed-Method Study on the Palliative Care Capacity of Social Workers in Flanders (Belgium): A Call to Expand Their Role

“…Even though social workers can make meaningful contributions, they are often inadequately involved in daily palliative care practice [4]. Several explanations have been listed in the literature such as unclear role descriptions [5,6], lack of education related to end-of-life care in social work [7,8], or the medicalisation of palliative care [9].…”