Palliative Care Medical Education in European Universities: A Descriptive Study and Numerical Scoring System Proposal for Assessing Educational Development.

The lack of palliative medicine (PM) education has been identified as a barrier to the development of the discipline. A number of international institutions have called for its implementation within undergraduate medical curricula. The objectives are to describe the situation of undergraduate PM education in Europe and to propose a scoring system to evaluate its status. This descriptive study was conducted with data provided by key experts from countries of the World Health Organization European Region (n = 53). A numerical scoring system was developed through consensus techniques. Forty-three countries (81%) provided the requested information. In 13 countries (30%), a PM course is taught in all medical schools, being compulsory in six of them (14%). In 15 countries (35%), PM is taught in at least one university. In 14 countries (33%), PM is not taught within medical curricula. A full professor of PM was identified in 40% of countries. Three indicators were developed to construct a scale (rank 0-100) of educational development: 1) proportion of medical schools that teach PM (weight = 32%); 2) proportion of medical schools that offer PM as a compulsory subject (weight = 40%); 3) total number of PM professors (weight = 28%). The highest level of PM educational development was found in Israel, Norway, the U.K., Belgium, France, Austria, Germany, and Ireland. PM is taught in a substantial number of undergraduate medical programs at European universities, and a qualified teaching structure is emerging; however, there is a wide variation in the level of PM educational development between individual countries.

Carrasco JM ，Lynch TJ ，Garralda E ，Woitha K ，Elsner F ，Filbet M ，Ellershaw JE ，Clark D ，Centeno C ... -  《-》

How Do Experienced Professors Teach Palliative Medicine in European Universities? A Cross-Case Analysis of Eight Undergraduate Educational Programs.

Noguera A ，Bolognesi D ，Garralda E ，Beccaro M ，Kotlinska-Lemieszek A ，Furst CJ ，Ellershaw J ，Elsner F ，Csikos A ，Filbet M ，Biasco G ，Centeno C ... -  《-》

Comparative analysis of specialization in palliative medicine processes within the World Health Organization European region.

Palliative medicine (PM), still in the development phase, is a new, growing specialty aimed at caring for both oncology and non-oncology patients. There is still confusion about the training offered in the various European PM certification programs. To provide a detailed, comparative update and analysis of the PM certification process in Europe, including the different training approaches and their main features. Experts from each country completed an online survey addressing historical background, program name, training requirements, length of time in training, characteristic and content, official certifying institution, effectiveness of accreditation, and 2013 workforce capacity. We prepared a comparative analysis of the data provided. In 2014, 18 of 53 European countries had official programs on specialization in PM (POSPM): Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and the U.K. Ten of these programs were begun in the last five years. The PM is recognized as a "specialty," "subspecialty," or "special area of competence," with no substantial differences between the last two designations. The certification contains the term "palliative medicine" in most countries. Clinical training varies, with one to two years being the most frequent duration. There is a clear trend toward establishing the POSPM as a mandatory condition for obtaining a clinical PM position in countries' respective health systems. PM is growing as a specialization field in Europe. Processes leading to certification are generally long and require substantial clinical training. The POSPM education plans are heterogeneous. The European Association for Palliative Care should commit to establishing common learning standards, leading to additional European-based recognition of expertise in PM.

Centeno C ，Bolognesi D ，Biasco G 《-》

The state of undergraduate palliative care education at Austrian medical schools - a mixed methods study.

Toussaint V ，Paal P ，Simader R ，Elsner F ... -  《BMC Palliative Care》

Undergraduate education in palliative medicine in Germany: a longitudinal perspective on curricular and infrastructural development.

Ilse B ，Alt-Epping B ，Kiesewetter I ，Elsner F ，Hildebrandt J ，Laske A ，Scherg A ，Schiessl C ，Working Group on Medical Education of the German Society of Palliative Medicine (AG Bildung der DGP) ... -  《BMC Medical Education》