Dying Well: The Role of Palliative Care and Sedation in End of Life Care (FutureLearn)

You’ll learn what it means to die well as you unpack patterns and experiences at the end of life. Exploring findings from a European Commission funded study, you’ll also discover the use of sedation and other care options you can use in your context.

Understand the role of palliative care

Through a variety of learning materials, including short videos, articles, discussions, and real-life case studies, you’ll discover the role of palliative care and sedation in helping people to die well.

This will help you gain an understanding of current palliative care practices and treatment options for end of life care across Europe and in the context of ethical and cultural differences.

Learn how to manage difficult symptoms with sedatives

Next, you’ll compare ethical and practical debates as well as evidence-based recommendations about the use of sedation in end of life care across European countries.

This exploration will help you learn how to manage difficult symptoms with sedation.

Explore recommendations for palliative sedation

Finally, you’ll explore the revised recommendations from the European Association for Palliative Care on palliative sedation.

You’ll then put your skills into practice as you prepare a plan about the use of sedation in your own clinical care setting or as a family caregiver.

Syllabus

Week 1: Dying well and the role of palliative care

Week 2: Managing difficult symptoms with sedation

Week 3: Recommendations for using sedation in palliative care

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

- Describe patterns of dying across the world and common symptoms people experience

- Explore current palliative care practices and treatment options near the end of life, including sedation

- Apply evidence-based recommendations on sedation to support decision making about its use and delivery within palliative care contexts

- Evaluate ethical and clinical evidence about the use of sedation at the end of life across European countries

- Develop a plan about the use of sedation at the end of life in the context of their own setting

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for health and social care professionals such as physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and social workers.

You may work in palliative care units, hospital-based palliative care teams, hospices, community-based services, in nursing homes, or the wider healthcare system. Alternatively, you may be a family caregiver.

This course will help you provide better care for patients who experience difficult end of life symptoms.