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Enrolling in the Collection will help you to build skills in providing palliative care, develop best practices for communicating, understand ways to support cultural safety, and integrate a palliative approach for any person experiencing life-limiting illness.
Courses were written and developed specifically for PSWs/HCAs, to strengthen their capacity, comfort and confidence in providing palliative care.
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FREE COURSE
Explore the history of Indigenous people in Canada and the role of colonialism in marginalizing Indigenous people and their access to health care.
Learn strategies for providing culturally safer care with a trauma informed approach including implementing Calls to Action for health care from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and using the concept of two-eyed seeing.
Image credit: Brian Sinclair Mural, by Stephen Gladue 2020
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Develop the skills you need to be self-aware and for communicating when providing hospice and palliative care
In this course, students will learn how to communicate and connect in ways that honour and respect a dying person and their family; develop self-awareness and a deeper understanding of their beliefs, values, and cultural view; explore and learn the best practices for communicating and connecting in palliative care, so that you can better know what to say when providing care; and discover what you might be saying that may prevent a person from sharing what they are feeling or they need.
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What does it mean to integrate a palliative approach?
Discover the dramatic changes in dying over the past 100 years - changes that resolve dying into four common patterns and affect how care is now provided. As you learn the principles for providing palliative care, you'll develop your understanding of why some people may struggle to access palliative and end-of-life care.
Help to increase access by empowering yourself with the knowledge and skills for integrating a palliative approach into the care of any person with a life-limiting illness, in any care setting.
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The "family dance" is an easy-to-use model for understanding the role of therapeutic boundaries in caregiving relationships.
Using this model and the captivating podcasts from
Elizabeth Causton you will learn how to develop your therapeutic boundaries, how to identify unclear boundaries and ways to maintain boundaries when providing care. Understand the challenges of providing care in a smaller community, when you may be a friend/family member as well as the member of the health care team. Learn practical skills and phrases for working with boundaries and providing compassionate care.
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Build valuable skills in gathering and sharing information as you learn how to support physical comfort for a person with life-limiting illness.
Understand how to use standardized tools for gathering information and communicating with the team. Learn principles for using medications in palliative care and understand why opioid medications are essential medications used in palliative care.
Understand the common fears about using opioids, and ways to help manage the side effects of opioids. Pull it all together as you learn how to support a person experiencing pain as they decline and die.
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"PSWs are often called the eyes and the ears of the health care team."
This course discusses the common symptoms of dyspnea, anorexia and cachexia, nausea and vomiting, and delirium, and the ways that PSWs can support the comfort of a person experiencing a symptom.
In this course, you will build on your skills for using standardized tools while learning about these common symptoms, the causes, medications, treatments and comfort measures. Through the course, you will build skills in communicating with the team and advocating for the person's care wishes.
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"Put on your oxygen mask first!" is the rule, because you cannot help anyone else if you do not take care of yourself.
Caregiving, especially when working with a person who is dying and their family, has the potential to exhaust a caregiver. The course explores the different domains of self-care and helps you to determine the best self-care practices to care for you. In addition to developing an individualized self-care plan, you will also prepare an advanced care plan.
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Develop your understanding of psychosocial care
Palliative care is holistic care - which means it supports all aspects of a person. It's more than just physical care
. Develop ways to maintain a psychosocial perspective when providing care, using the VERS strategy. Learn about common transitions during decline, and ways to provide psychosocial support for the person and family. Build skills in supporting the person and family through the decline of dementia.
Learn the essential role of the PSW in supporting advance care planning.
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Loss and grief are prominent features of the psychosocial landscape when a person is dying. PSWs will learn the essential truths about loss and grief and engage in reflections on a personal experience to anchor their new understandings of loss and grief. Learners build practical skills for providing compassionate comfort for a grieving person, including ways to communicate that convey support and understanding. In the section on children and grief, PSWs learn how children differ in their grieving and common concerns, and understand ways for supporting grieving children. In the final module, students explore their own beliefs about MAID and learn ways to respond to a person interested in MAID or requesting MAID.
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The last days and hours of a person's life are precious - to the person and their family.
This course will help you as you provide care and support in the last days and hours. Build your understanding of care needs by learning about common physical changes in the last days and hours and ways to support the person's physical comfort. Understand the psychosocial implications of the changes for the family and how to support them. Learn how to care for a body after death, and ways to support a family to be with their deceased loved one, including ways to support rituals and traditions.