About Our Palliative Care Courses
While our palliative care courses are particularly relevant to South Africa and countries in sub Saharan Africa they also have global relevance. The courses offer an interactive and immersive experience and encourage participants to reflect on their own experiences caring for children with palliative care needs. Short quizzes, activities, videos and revision exercises interspersed through the courses will help to hold your interest and to instill new knowledge.
Continuing Professional Development Points
All of our available course have been assigned General or Ethics Continuing Education Units (CEUs) by The Colleges of Medicine of South Africa (CMSA) for the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Programme of the Health Professionals Council of South Africa (HPCSA).
| Course | Level 1 General CPD points |
Level 1 Ethics CPD points |
Total CPD points |
Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Introducing Children’s Palliative Care | 2 | 3 | 5 | FREE |
| Supporting Greiving Children | 2 | 2 | 4 | FREE |
| Teamwork, Managing Conflict and Self-Care | 2 | 1 | 3 | R250 |
| Holistic Assessment and Palliative Care Planning | 2 | 2 | 4 | R350 |
| Psychosocial Support in Children’s Palliative Care | 2 | 4 | 6 | R350 |
| Cultural Competency and Spiritual Care | 2 | 3 | 5 | R350 |
| Communication in Children’s Palliative Care | 2 | 3 | 5 | R350 |
| Loss, Grief & Bereavement in Children’s Palliative Care | 3 | 3 | 6 | R350 |
| Ethics & Decision Making in Children’s Palliative Care | – | 6 | 6 | R350 |
| Assessing and Managing Children’s Pain | 5 | 1 | 6 | R450 |
| Symptom Management in Children’s Palliative Care | 5 | 1 | 6 | R450 |
| End-of-Life Care for Children | 5 | 1 | 6 | R450 |
| Perinatal and Neonatal Palliative Care | 4 | 4 | 8 | R550 |
Once you have completed a course and downloaded your certificate, email the certificate to our Education Manager, Tracy Rawlins, at tracy.rawlins@patchsa.org, who will verify your results and provide you with your CPD certificate via return of email.
Your CPD points will also be sent through to HPCSA to be uploaded directly onto their database.
Group / Organisation Discounts
We offer discounted fees to Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and charities
We know that times can be tough and we are looking for ways to support NGOs and charities who work with children with palliative care needs. We are very happy to offer a group discount on the price of our courses as follows:
- For 3 or more members of staff or people affiliated to a charity or NGO we will offer a 10% discount
- For 10 or more members of staff or people affiliated to a charity or NGO we offer a 15% discount
Contact us
Should you wish to chat to us to negotiate a price for your organisation, please contact Sue on info@patchsa.org or phone her on 0823744632
Learn more about our courses
Introducing Children’s Palliative Care
Price: FREE
This course offers anyone working with or caring for children who have life-threatening or life-limiting conditions a comprehensive overview of palliative care for children. The course is particularly relevant to South Africa and countries in sub–Saharan Africa but still has global relevance. This introductory course offers an interactive and immersive experience and encourages participants to reflect on their own experiences caring for vulnerable children. Short quizzes and revision exercises through the course will help to keep your interest and instill knowledge. The course covers the following key elements:
- A brief history of palliative care and children’s palliative care
- What is palliative care
- The need for children’s palliative care in South Africa and globally
- Definitions and descriptions of palliative care for children
- What makes children’s palliative care unique
- Key components of children’s palliative care
- Who provides children’s palliative care
- Settings for the provision of children’s palliative care
FREE
CPD Points
Level 1: 3 Ethics and 2 General CEUs from CMSA
Course review
“Children are not little adults, and while the principles of palliative care remain the same for all, it is each unique child – from the tiny neonate to the maturing teenager – who directs the way palliative care is provided for them; always within the framework of childhood development, their changing understanding, and the impact of the condition on the child and their family. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the key principles of this fascinating subject I encourage you to complete the Patch Academy online course, Introducing Children’s Palliative Care, to gain a comprehensive and deeper understanding of the way children experience serious illness and dying, their different forms of expression and communication and how health care providers working together with the child and family help each child to enjoy the best possible quality of life.”
Joan Marston
International Children’s Palliative Care Advocate
Founder of Sunflower Children’s Hospice
Co-Chair of PALLCHASE
Supporting Grieving Children
Price: FREE
It’s natural to want to protect children when someone they love dies; however, we need to talk to children to help them feel safer and more in control. The best thing to do is to provide them with honest, age-appropriate information about death. It’s painful to see a child upset, but children cope better with sad news when they are told the truth. Helping children understand death and grief will vary depending on the child’s age and developmental stage.
This course was originally created in response to the Covid-19 pandemic but has since been revamped and updated and is offered as a free course to anyone who wishes to learn how to support children who are grieving due to the loss of a loved one or who may have experienced multiple losses due to a tragic event.
This course covers the following key elements:
- Define the terms loss, grief, mourning and bereavement
- Understand how children will experience secondary and cumulative losses when a loved one dies
- Differentiate between the different types of grief
- Understand the ways in which children grieve
- Describe the grief reactions children and adolescent’s display
- Describe how children understand death and dying
- Know how to discuss death with a child
- Know how to support children who are grieving
FREE
CPD Points
Level 1: 2 Ethics and 2 General CEUs from CMSA
Course review
“I would recommend this informative and relevant course to family members, grieving communities and bereavement counsellors. The course describes the realities of children and teens who grieve a loved one. The information is comprehensive, practical, and needed in a time that many of our children experience losses to their lives.”
Dr Welly den Hollander
Medical Social Worker and Narrative Therapist
Communication in Children’s Palliative Care
Price: R350
This course offers people working with or caring for children who have life-threatening or life-limiting conditions knowledge on how to improve their communication skills both privately and within a work environment, with an emphasis on the unique skills needed when working with children needing palliative care and their families. The course covers the following key elements:
- What is communication, communication styles and the value of being a good communicator
- Skills needed to communicate effectively within a broad spectrum of healthcare settings
- How to prepare for and hold difficult conversations, including how to break bad news to children and families
- Communicating with newly bereaved and grieving parents and family members
- Appropriate communication with children of different ages and stages of development
- How to talk to children about their own illness and death
- Making the best use of internet connectivity when providing palliative care to children
R350
CPD Points
Level 1: 3 Ethics and 2 General CEUs from CMSA
Course review
“Communication is an essential part of life and a crucial factor in medical care. Within a palliative care scenario, it is even more imperative. The Patch Academy module on communication highlights why this is so important and provides key information on how to talk to caregivers and children about goals of care as well as breaking bad news. This is an area many of us struggle with and the information within this module will change the way you practice.”
Tracey Brand
Director, Co-Founder and Medical Social Worker
Umduduzi Hospice Care for Children
Assessing and Managing Children’s Pain
Price: R450
This course offers people working with or caring for children who have life-threatening or life-limiting conditions knowledge on how to recognise, assess and manage pain in children, with particular relevance to children with life-threatening and life-limiting illnesses. The course covers the following key elements:
- The meaning of total pain.
- Definitions and classifications of pain according to duration, type and cause.
- How to recognise pain in children.
- Types of pain children experience.
- How to complete a thorough pain assessment.
- How to use age appropriate pain rating scales.
- General principles of pain management.
- Using morphine and co-analgesics.
- Managing procedural pain in children and neonates.
R450
CPD Points
Level 1: 1 Ethics and 5 General CEUs from CMSA
Course review
“This interactive module on assessing and managing pain in children, covers everything you need to know to improve the quality of life for children in pain. For too long children’s pain has been under recognised, underestimated and therefore under treated. Informative, fun and easy to complete, this module is absolutely essential for anyone working with children in healthcare.”
Dr Julia Ambler
Deputy Director, Co-Founder and Head of Clinical Services
Umduduzi Hospice Care for Children
Teamwork, Managing Conflict and Self-Care
Price: R250
This course offers people working with or caring for children who have life-threatening or life-limiting conditions knowledge on working as a team, caring for yourself so that you are the best team member you can be and how to manage conflict. The information is of particular relevance to teams and people caring for and working with children needing palliative care and their families. The course covers the following key elements:
- Knowledge about how teams function
- Types of teams
- Working as an effective member of a healthcare team
- Recognition of the importance of open, honest and empathetic communication between team members
- Recognise and managing conflict between the team and the patient or parents
- Recognising signs and managing symptoms of burnout and compassion fatigue
- Ways to take care of yourself physically, emotionally, spiritually and socially
R250
CPD Points
Level 1: 1 Ethics and 2 General CEUs from CMSA
Course reviews
“Think of this module as your essential vaccination. Teamwork, managing conflict and self-care might sound like the “fluffy” non-essential side of paediatric palliative medicine and the module with topics that you most want to avoid. I’d encourage you to pause and sign up, since the “how to” in these essential areas is key. The hard truth remains that if you don’t care for yourself you cannot care for others. If you insist on working in silos your patient outcomes will likely suffer and if you don’t foster trusting respectful relationships with patients, families and colleagues then both professional and personal relationships will likely disintegrate! This module will give you practical and helpful tips and will provide a foundation for patient centred care which is truly about the human being in front of you and the human being within you. Be brave – this chapter is the foundation for putting the health back into healthcare”
Melissa Williams-Platt
Bereaved Mother and Palliative Care Coach
Co-Founder and Trustee
Footprints for Sam
Loved this course and would recommend all healthcare workers in any field to participate in it. It is vital.
Fiona McLennan
Massage Therapist and team member at Paedspal
Cultural Competency and Spiritual Care
Price: R350
This course provides a comprehensive overview of the need and value of developing cultural competence both as an individual and for organisations. Cultural competency ensures that patients feel respected, heard and safe to continue accessing services that are provided. The need to provide often neglected spiritual support and care to children with serious illnesses and to their families cannot be over stated. There are times when medical practitioners have done everything they know to control pain and yet find it is intractable. It is important for them to recognise that spiritual pain is very real and needs to be addressed with their patients. This course covers the following topics:
- The relevance of culture when providing palliative care to children and their families
- The need to develop cultural competence.
- The differences and similarities between spirituality and religion.
- Ways in which children express their spirituality.
- The signs of spiritual suffering in children and adults.
- Assessment of spirituality and spiritual needs in children and family members
- The spiritual needs of children with a serious illness.
- Planning for and providing spiritual care to children with a life-limiting illness and their families.
- Providing spiritual care to adolescents
- Providing spiritual care at the time of death.
- Providing spiritual care to bereaved families.
R350
CPD Points
Level 1: 5 Ethics CEUs from CMSA
3 General and 2 Ethics CPD points from CPSC
Course review
“From birth children are spiritual beings, and their spirituality is both experienced and expressed as connections to their developing self-awareness, to others, to nature and to something or Someone greater than themselves. Spiritual care helps them to find meaning and purpose in their lives, especially important when they have a life-limiting illness. Children are also affected by their cultural environment, which helps to build their identity. Cultural interactions may change, and include the culture of childhood and of the health care system.”
Joan Marston
International Children’s Palliative Care Advocate
Founder of Sunflower Children’s Hospice
Co-Chair of PALLCHASE
Psychosocial Support in Children’s Palliative Care
Price: R350
Palliative care for children is holistic in nature so being able to provide psychological and social support to children with pallaitive care needs and to their family members is imperative. We acknowledge that it is sometimes easier to prescribe a medication to relieve physical pain than it is to help a child and family overcome their psychological and social problems or to help heal their spiritual pain and distress. This course provides you with the knowledge, the tools and the skills to assess psychosocial issues seriously ill children and their families face and provides excellent guidance on how to walk alongside and support them through one of life’s most difficult journeys. Key elements covered within the course include:
- Understanding the need for psychological and social support for children and families
- Developing a helping relationship with the child and family
- Accessing and harnessing community support for the child and family
- Assessing and providing for a sick child’s psychosocial needs
- Assessing and providing psychosocial support for the family, including siblings
- Supportive therapies used in children’s palliative care
- Supporting the right of children to continue their education
- Understanding the value and importance of play for children with palliative care needs.
R350
CPD Points
Level 1: 6 CEUs (4 Ethics and 2 General) from CMSA
Course review
“I was excited and grateful for the insight provided on this topic as it is relevant and much needed in society today. This course provides a comprehensive overview of the care needed when working with children with life-threatening and life-limiting illnesses and their families. It is empowering, equipping and user friendly. Information is well presented and flows well, engaging the learner with clear outcomes, well defined terminology, relevant videos, related articles, assessment tools, theory and quizzes which all supported and reinforced learning. The information provided is a manual and tool on how to equip and support children, families and extended communities which include NGOs dealing with children and families, organisations, Child and Youth Care Centres, community workers, faith based organisations and educators. The impact of this work will be far reaching.”
Ruth King
Social Worker
Child & Youth Care Centre
Ethics and Decision Making in Children’s Palliative Care
Price: R350
All children are vulnerable and those with a serious illness or disability even more so. Moreover, decisions are made for children by others (by proxy), who are usually their parents or other caregivers. There are many difficult decisions that have to be made when providing care to children with life-limiting and life-threatening illnesses. These include life and death decisions, such as whether or not to withhold or withdraw certain treatments.
Sometimes doctors adopt a paternalistic approach and tell the parents what to do and sometimes parents, who are influenced by their emotions and their fear of losing the child, will tell the doctors what to do. There is a significant risk that decisions may not necessarily be made in the best interests of the child and that the child may not have a say in this. It is therefore important that an ethical framework be applied to provision and decision making in children’s palliative care.
By the end of this course you should be able to:
- Define morals and ethics.
- Understand children’s rights.
- Describe the importance of medical ethics in children’s palliative care.
- Know what the relevant South African laws are regarding children and decision making in healthcare.
- Recognise an ethical dilemma.
- Understand why it is important to manage an ethical dilemma well.
- Know who should be involved in decision making for children in palliative care.
- Use an ethical framework to address an ethical dilemma.
- Appreciate the benefit of disclosure and avoiding collusion regarding a diagnosis.
- Know when it is ethical to withhold or withdraw treatment.
- Understand the doctrine of double effect and that euthanasia is not part of palliative care.
R350
CPD Points
Level 1: 6 CEUs (Ethics) from CMSA
Course review
“The PatchSA course on Ethics and Palliative Care is excellent. It takes the learner through all the important aspects of ethics, children’s rights, and the law regarding children, particularly in the context of palliative care. Apart from the core module contents, many links and additional resources provide interesting information and reading. Discussion of ethical dilemmas and actual cases provides additional interest and learning opportunities. Each section revises the core knowledge through quizzes and questions. The ethics novice and the experienced person will both gain from this module. I highly recommend it.”
Prof Sharon Kling MBChB DCH(SA), FCPaed, MMed, MPhil (Applied Ethics)
Consultant Paediatrician
Tygerberg Hospital
Part-time Lecturer
Centre for Medical Ethics and Law, University of Stellenbosch
Loss, Grief and Bereavement
In children’s palliative care both the sick child and their family members are affected by loss and death. It is the one topic most of us dread discussing and avoid whenever possible.
Zoë Clark-Coates, grief expert and founder of The Mariposa Trust writes:
“One of the things I have learnt on my journey is the way we view grief and loss, especially baby loss, depends on our personal views of death and life. If one values every life, whether it be short or long, that changes how we grieve and importantly how we live. If we want to embrace life, we also need to accept death; the two go hand in hand and if we can lose the fear surrounding this often taboo subject, we can become open to the emotions that grief and loss bring.”
An important requirement in being able to walk with others in their grief journey is to be aware of what constitutes loss, your own experience of loss and your attitude towards loss, death and grief. It is also important to understand that when children experience loss, it affects their sense of security and they lack the skills to help them adjust to situations of loss. This can make them more vulnerable to the effects of loss than adults.
By the end of this course you should be able to:
- Understand the meaning of loss, grief, mourning and bereavement.
- Be aware of the many models and theories of grief and how they inform support for those who grieve.
- Appreciate the difference between the ways adults and children experience grief.
- Understand how children experience grief at different ages and how best to support them.
- Understand anticipatory grief and how to manage it.
- Understand complicated and delayed grief and how to manage them.
- Describe ways to support families through grief, loss and bereavement.
- Appreciate the importance of memory work.
R350
CPD Points
Level 1: 6 CEUs (3 Ethics and 3 General) from CMSA
Course review
“I was impressed by the amount of time and care that has been invested in the creation of this course as well as its accessibility. It contains a wealth of information and I encourage anyone with an interest in this wide subject to enroll in this course and then to have the benefit of returning to it to refresh one’s memory as well as to use it as a very helpful resource.”
Di Burger
Registered Family Counsellor with 30+ years of experience in Palliative Care & Bereavement Counselling Support
Paedspal
Holistic Assessment and Palliative Care Planning
Price: R350
Dr Justin Amery, author of the Oxford Textbook on Children’s Palliative Care in Africa wrote: “A child can suffer for many different reasons. A child has many different needs, any of which, if blocked or adversely affected, will cause the child to suffer in one way or another. Now the reality is that, in most African health care settings, we will not have the resources to meet all of the child’s needs, but that doesn’t mean we should not know what they are.” He goes on to say, “Good children’s palliative care planning means hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. Without a full assessment and an agreed, achievable and realistic care plan it is very difficult to provide good children’s palliative care.”
With this course we hope to empower those who work with children needing palliative care to gain the skills, knowledge and a number of helpful tools to carry out holistic assessments of children and family members and to use the information gathered to develop realistic palliative care plans that, when needed, will include advance care and terminal care plans.
Key points of learning within this course include:
- Holistic assessment as a vital component of good children’s palliative care and future planning.
- How to approach and carry out an assessment of a child and family to ascertain their physical, spiritual, social and emotional needs.
- Raising awareness of available resources and tools to assist in holistic assessment and palliative care planning.
- The differences between palliative planning, advance care planning and a terminal can planning and how they integrate.
- The key elements of a palliative care plan, an advance care plan and a terminal plan.
- How to approach a discussion with the family on goals of care and the value of planning in advance for difficult and emergency situations.
- The value of shared decision making.
- Ways to overcome challenges and barriers to good palliative care planning.
- The steps and processes for developing a palliative care plan, an advance care plan and a terminal care plan.
R350
CPD Points
Level 1: 3 Ethics and 2 General CEUs from CMSA
Course review
Dr Justin Amery, author of the Oxford Textbook on Children’s Palliative Care in Africa wrote: “A child can suffer for many different reasons. A child has many different needs, any of which, if blocked or adversely affected, will cause the child to suffer in one way or another. Now the reality is that, in most African health care settings, we will not have the resources to meet all of the child’s needs, but that doesn’t mean we should not know what they are.” He goes on to say, “Good children’s palliative care planning means hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. Without a full assessment and an agreed, achievable and realistic care plan it is very difficult to provide good children’s palliative care.”
This course aims to empower those who work with children needing palliative care to gain the skills and the knowledge that enables them to carry out holistic assessments of children and families and to use the information to develop realistic palliative care plans that, when needed, will include advance care and terminal care plans. The course also provides links to numerous helpful assessment and planning tools and resources that can be downloaded.
Symptom Management in Children’s Palliative Care
Price: R450
This course offers healthcare providers, in particular doctors and nurses, working with or caring for children with life-threatening or life-limiting conditions important information on how to recognise, assess and manage common symptoms these children are likely to experience. The ability to provide timely management of the more distressing symptoms, particularly those experienced at the end of life, will ensure a better quality of life and lower anxiety levels for the patient and their family members.
The course covers the following key elements:
- Understand and describe the difference between a sign and a symptom
- Describe the general approach to symptom management including the 5 Golden Rules of symptom management
- Assess and manage cardiorespiratory symptoms
- Assess and manage gastrointestinal symptoms
- Assess and manage skin symptoms
- Assess and manage nutritional and constitutional symptoms
- Assess and manage neurological and neuromuscular symptoms
- Assess and manage palliative care emergencies
R450
CPD Points
Level 1: 1 Ethics and 5 General CEUs from CMSA
Course review
The course was excellent. It is a must for every health care, not just those working in paediatrics or palliative care. It was easy to navigate, very well thought out, had an appropriate use of resources and was thoroughly engaging. Even though I do this every day, I learned quite a lot and I really enjoyed doing it. It was very thought provoking and had a lot of information that I thought I could use in everyday situations, particularly with families. I would highly recommend this to everyone, and in fact, I’m keen to do more of the short courses now, just to refresh my mind.
Dr Mehnaaz Ally
Paediatric Palliative Care Consultant
Wits Hospice & Lambano Sanctuary
End-of-Life Care for Children
Price: R450
When a child dies, what most people consider to be the natural order of life is turned on its head. No parent ever wants to consider the death of their child. Dreams are shattered, lives are altered, and it may take the rest of their lives to adjust to the loss. This is why memories of how a child dies and specific conversations had with healthcare professionals at the time of and following their child’s death, whether negative or positive, are likely to remain with parents forever.
Many healthcare providers also do not wish to consider what good end-of-life care looks like. After all, they entered their profession to heal people, not to help them die. Nevertheless, children do die and their suffering at the end of life is real and can and should be well managed. This course will help ensure that the worst experience for a family is handled with the greatest possible compassion so that after the child has died, they are not left with unanswered questions, regrets and feelings of not doing all they could to reduce their suffering, both physical and psychosocial.
On completion of the course, it is expected that you will:
- Know that there is a difference between end-of-life care and terminal care.
- Appreciate the benefits of providing good end-of-life care for a child and their family.
- Know how to provide culturally sensitive care at the end of life.
- Appreciate that a child’s understanding of illness and death changes and develops according to their age and stage of development.
- Understand and have the tools to undertake the process of advance care planning.
- Be aware of how to manage pain and distressing symptoms likely to occur when a child is dying, including:
- Dyspnoea
- Noisy breathing (death rattle)
- Restlessness and terminal agitation
- Catastrophic bleeding
- Seizures
- Acute terminal events
- Be aware of the physical, psychosocial and spiritual needs of the dying child.
- Know how to support the family at the time of a child’s death and afterwards.
- Appreciate the importance and benefits of memory work and legacy planning.
R450
CPD Points
Level 1: 1 Ethics and 5 General CEUs from CMSA
Course review
The course was excellent. It is a must for every health care, not just those working in paediatrics or palliative care. It was easy to navigate, very well thought out, had an appropriate use of resources and was thoroughly engaging. Even though I do this every day, I learned quite a lot and I really enjoyed doing it. It was very thought provoking and had a lot of information that I thought I could use in everyday situations, particularly with families. I would highly recommend this to everyone, and in fact, I’m keen to do more of the short courses now, just to refresh my mind.
Dr Mehnaaz Ally
Paediatric Palliative Care Consultant
Wits Hospice & Lambano Sanctuary
Perinatal and Neonatal Palliative Care
Perinatal palliative care encompasses holistic care of the fetus or newborn baby diagnosed with a life-limiting condition either in pregnancy or soon after delivery and includes providing support to the parents, siblings, and other close family members. It requires timely decision-making, planning and a focus on improving their quality of life through a continuum of care from diagnosis, through death and into the bereavement period. The modules and topics within this course include:
- Introduction to perinatal palliative care
- Providing palliative care in the antenatal period
- Care and support during labour and immediately after delivery
- Care and support during the neonatal period
- Key considerations in perinatal palliative care
R550
CPD Points
Level 1: 4 Ethics and 4 General CEUs from CMSA
Course reviews
“Perinatal palliative care is something that all health care providers are exposed to and yet there is very little teaching or guidance on how to support and help these families. What I love about this course is that it highlights what we can do as individual healthcare providers, what language to use, what questions to ask, and how to walk an uncertain road with families. Although time is often limited, there is no need for fancy equipment or resources, we can all learn from this course how to be more sensitive, how to care for, and potentially ease the course of a bereaved parent’s journey. The course provides some excellent resources, and the videos help to demonstrate how good perinatal palliative care can make an enormous difference to these families. An excellent course, well worth the time for anyone working in obstetrics and paediatrics.”
Dr Nicolette Brown
Paediatric Neonatologist
“Overall, it’s a fantastic course on an essential and delicate topic. I really enjoyed learning from it, and it is presented so beautifully. I appreciated the inclusion of genetic counselling and found the section on debriefing and self-care so important. The course was structured and presented well, and it is clear that it was thought through and carefully curated. Well done on a fantastic course!”
Sinead Cameron-Mackintosh
Genetic Counsellor