Palliative care: For professionals providing care

On this page

• Talking with patients
• The palliative approach to care
• Grief support for you and your patients
• Training and education for providers

Talking with patients

Talking with your patients about their serious illness is not easy. It can be hard to know what to say or when to say it. There are resources to help make the conversation easier.

Learn more about:

• Serious Illness Care Program (Alberta Health Services)
• Improving your goals of care conversations (Sinai Health System)
• Advance care planning resources and tools (Advance Care Planning Canada)
• Serious illness conversations – for providers (British Columbia Centre for Palliative Care)

The palliative approach to care

A palliative approach to care integrates the core elements of palliative care into the care provided by non-specialists in:

• primary care
• long-term care
• all mainstream health services

This approach gives more providers the skills, knowledge and attitudes they need to provide people and their families with palliative care whenever and wherever they need it.

As a health or social service provider, you're likely already providing a palliative approach to care for your patients living with serious illness.

To help you provide the best care, we worked closely with the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer to create the Canadian Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Competency Framework.

This document represents minimum national standards for palliative care in Canada for those who:

• specialize in palliative care
• wish to integrate palliative care principles into another discipline

It includes information for:

• nurses
• volunteers
• social workers
• general physicians
• personal support workers
• spiritual care professionals

Canadian Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Competency Framework (PDF format)

Canadian Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Competency Framework (Factsheet) (PDF format)

Grief support for you and your patients

People living with serious illness may experience grief related to:

• loss of health, independence and sense of control
• changes in roles within their family, chosen family, social circles or workplaces

Those who are close to them may experience grief as they notice these losses or as they prepare for future loss.

You can support your patients or clients and those closest to them by connecting them with emotional, social, spiritual and psychological supports.

Resources for patients or clients

• Information and resources about grief (AboutGrief)
• Support for kids (KidsGrief)
• Support for youth (YouthGrief)
• Support for adults (MyGrief)
• Grief and serious illness: Support for caregivers
• Grief and serious illness: Support for people living with serious illness

Professionals providing care often work in high-stress environments, supporting people through difficult life events. This can mean experiencing loss more often than others. You may carry grief for patients, for colleagues, or from personal experiences.

Grief support is available to help you understand and manage your own grief.

Resources for professionals

• Grief training: learning modules (Canadian Virtual Hospice)
• Supporting people who are grieving (AboutGrief)
• Healthcare provider grief: learning modules (Canadian Virtual Hospice)

Training and education for providers

Project ECHO has been recognized globally as a leading approach to improving patient care outcomes. It connects health care providers in communities with regional and national specialists and experts to increase knowledge and skills to provide better care to patients and families.

Pallium Canada has a series of palliative care courses designed to help you provide care and support to patients facing serious illness and their caregivers.

Learn more about:

• Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes)
• Learning Essential Approaches to Palliative Care (Pallium Canada)

Related links

Nurses

• Canadian Palliative Care Nurses Association
• Certification nursing practice specialties (Canadian Nurses Association)
• Palliative approach to care and the role of the nurse (PDF format) (Canadian Nurses Association)
• Palliative and end-of-life care teaching and learning resources (Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing)

Physicians

• Canadian Society of Palliative Medicine
• Palliative care information for doctors (Canadian Medical Association)
• Certificates of Added Competence (College of Family Physicians of Canada)
• Results of the National Palliative Medicine Survey, 2015 (PDF format) (Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians)
• Subspecialty training requirements in adult palliative medicine (Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada)