To the CAPC Community:

On January 15, 2015, CAPC launched an online palliative care curriculum. Our goal was two-fold – to support thousands of teams across the country to launch and grow high-quality palliative care programs, and to train all clinicians in the core palliative care clinical skills so badly needed by our sickest and most vulnerable patients. We now have 37 courses (10 on operational and leadership topics and 27 on clinical knowledge and skills). Since then, we’ve worked with so many of you and your organizations to promote culture and practice change through training.

I am delighted to announce that as of this month more than 50,000 courses have been completed by over 8,500 individual clinicians.

I thank every one of you who have completed training, have encouraged colleagues to do the same and who have advocated for the inclusion of palliative care skills in standard training requirements at your organizations. It is because of you that countless patients will receive higher-quality care and will avoid unnecessary suffering.

Why did we build this curriculum?

To relieve suffering for the more than 46 million Americans living with serious illness.

To ensure that all patients with serious illness have access to pain and symptom management, skilled conversations about their care preferences and what to expect and coordinated, responsive care – and that their loved ones receive the support that is necessary to be caregivers.

To scale palliative care services beyond hospitals and hospices and into community settings where the need is greatest and largely unmet.

To remove the major barrier to receipt of palliative care beyond hospital walls: lack of training for America’s health professionals.

To provide a training alternative for those clinicians who recognize their patients’ needs and are unable to secure time or resources for additional graduate or certificate programs or for live training workshops.

Who has taken courses? You represent:

  • 50 U.S. states
  • 4 Canadian provinces
  • 468 organizations
  • 75 specialties and subspecialties
  • All clinical disciplines
  • Hospitals, hospices, home health agencies, nursing homes, group practices, clinics, ACOs and payer organizations

75% of those who have taken CAPC courses come from specialties other than palliative care. What this means is that an enormous – and growing – number of clinicians from all settings and specialties are united in the mission to improve care quality through acquiring core palliative care knowledge and skills.

If you have not yet taken a course, I urge you to try. A course catalog with operational and leadership training for the palliative care team and clinical training for all clinicians can be downloaded here and course demonstrations are available here. All courses provide CME and CEU (for nurses, social workers, physicians, physician assistants, care managers and licensed professional counselors), are free for all staff from member organizations and can be taken from your phone, tablet or laptop.

To sign up as a new user, create an account here. If you would like help spreading the word about training to your colleagues, visit the Member Information Center on CAPC Central or call into office hours to strategize with our team.

Many colleagues also offer superb training resources both for palliative care specialists and for all clinicians. A table summarizing many of them is below.

This is an incredibly exciting time to be part of health care. I have seen more rapid change in the last five years than in all of my previous career – and that change is accelerating. Your vision and commitment is the platform from which we will revolutionize health care.

Note: There are many great programs and resources available for palliative care training for the non-specialist. See below for a partial list of training options.

Platform Training Audience Format/Usability CME/CEU For the palliative care program For the non-palliative care specialist
CAPC (Center to Advance Palliative Care) All frontline clinicians who work with seriously ill patients Clinical curriculum and operational online curriculum, webinars, virtual office hours, tools, annual National Seminar CME/CEU credits for physicians, physician assistants, nurses, case managers, social workers (including NY) and LPCs Palliative Care programmatic support, clinical training, toolkit for palliative care programs across settings Clinical training in communication, pain and symptom management, care coordination and family caregiver support
EPEC (Education for Physicians in End-of-life Care) Physicians and other health care professionals who are engaged in palliative care education and clinical practice Conferences, grand rounds presentations, medical school curricula, seminars, self-study courses CME for MD, CEU for RN, SW coming soon Clinical training Clinical training
ELNEC (End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium) Undergraduate and graduate nursing faculty, CE providers, staff development educators, specialty nurses in pediatrics, oncology, critical care and geriatrics and other nurses with training in palliative care Online courses, national and regional training sessions, conferences Nursing CE Clinical training for educators Clinical training for nurses
CSU (California State University Institute for Palliative Care) Nurses, social workers, chaplains and other healthcare professionals Virtual faculty-led cohorts, certificate programs, chaplaincy training and self-paced courses online All courses offer CE; some offer BRN, BBS and CME hours Clinical and program development training Clinical training
AAHPM (American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine) Physicians and physicians-in-training In-person and online education, resources, products and textbooks CME/MOC for physicians Clinical, hospice regulatory training
HPNA (Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association) Hospice and palliative educational products and services for all levels of nursing Conference and e-learning (70 online courses), online resources Nursing CE Clinical, operational, and leadership training
Vital Talk Communication skills training for clinicians Face-to-face training and train the trainer courses, online course with CME, mobile app CME for online course Communication training for clinicians Communication training for clinicians
University of Colorado, Denver Nursing, physicians, physician assistants and pharmacists Online and some face-to-face courses. Palliative care interprofessional graduate 36 credit hour master’s and 12 credit hour certificate programs Clinical, some operational training Clinical, some operational training
University of Washington – Cambia Palliative Care Center of Excellence: Graduate Certificate Program Health professions students or practicing physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains and other health care professionals Online plus a 3-day weekend face-to-face 15 credit graduate certificate program over 9 months Clinical, some operational training Clinical, some operational training
Palliative Care Education and Practice (PCEP), Harvard Medical School “For palliative care specialists, champions and educators, as well as generalist and specialist physicians and nurses who wish to gain additional competencies in palliative care by enhancing their skills in communication, teaching and clinical practice.” Two 1-week in-person training program; adult and pediatrics tracks CME for physicians Clinical and operational training Clinical and operational training
Four Seasons Center of Excellence Physicians, RNs, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, clinical nurse specialists and social workers 40-hour intensive in-person training 40 hours continuing education Clinical and operational training including program design Clinical training
Serious Illness Care Project Physicians, RNs, nurse practitioners, social workers, risk management 2.5-day face-to-face training course Nursing, social work, medical and risk management CE credits Multicomponent educational and implementation plan for improving occurrence, quality, and actionability of serious illness conversations Multicomponent educational and implementation plan for improving occurrence, quality, and actionability of serious illness conversations

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