Palliative Care Essentials

Clinical reasoning and examination

Video course

by Sabrina Ribeiro, MD PhD

Do you struggle to manage the pain of your patients with chronic life-threatening conditions? Do you avoid those tough conversations about end-of-life care or advanced planning? After attending this course, you will be able to identify and treat patients in need of palliative care. You will gain confidence in managing symptoms, discussing prognosis, and exploring values and goals of care.

2h 56m 19s

6 Quizzes

4 CME

What’s in it for you?

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After completing this course, you will be able to

Identify patients with advanced diseases and in need of palliative care
Recognize and explain the benefits of early palliative care
Clarify common misconceptions about palliative care
Recognize disease trajectories and introduce end-of-life decisions early in the course of disease
Improve the ability to establish a prognosis, based on simple questions and scale
Assess functional status to create more accurate and robust prognoses
Use communication techniques to deliver bad news effectively and compassionately
Assess your patient’s goals and priorities and engage them in shared decision-making
Recognize refractory disease and avoid futile and potentially inappropriate treatments
Identify and treat common symptoms such as pain and dyspnea
Define refractory symptoms and initiate palliative sedation
Make decisions regarding withholding or withdrawing potentially inappropriate treatments

What's inside

Free

Chapter 1

Introduction to palliative care

What is palliative care? In this chapter, we'll break down common misconceptions and address ethical considerations to determine which patients are ideal candidates for palliation.

8 lessons

22m 24s

Introduction to palliative care intro

23s

Defining palliative care

3m 22s

Addressing common misconceptions

Discussing the benefits of palliative care

3m 38s

Identifying candidates for palliative care

3m 41s

Addressing access to care and patient refusal

4m 25s

Clarifying ethical aspects of palliative care

3m 55s

Introduction to palliative care quiz

Quiz

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Chapter 2

Palliative care for special populations

This chapter focuses on assessing disease trajectory in patients with chronic or advanced illness and neurological conditions in order to determine timing and treatment goals of palliative care.

9 lessons

29m 43s

Palliative care for special populations intro

34s

Creating individual treatment plans

5m 20s

Caring for patients with cancer

3m 46s

Caring for patients with organ failure

3m 47s

Caring for patients with dementia

3m 30s

Caring for older patients

4m 12s

Caring for patients with neurocritical illness

4m 9s

Caring for patients in the LGBTQ+ community

4m 25s

Palliative care for special populations quiz

Quiz

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Chapter 3

Shared decision-making and advance care planning

How do you know if your patient has decision-making capacity? Is a DNR necessary? In this chapter, we discuss determining goals of care and planning for the future.

8 lessons

24m 57s

Shared decision-making and advance care planning intro

34s

Exploring shared decision-making

4m 14s

Assessing decision-making capacity

4m 21s

Discussing outpatient care goals

3m 59s

Creating inpatient care goals

4m 22s

Documenting goals of care

3m 17s

Witholding or withdrawing treatments

4m 10s

Shared decision-making and advance care planning quiz

Quiz

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Chapter 4

Bedside manner and communication

This chapter addresses how to handle tough situations, such as delivering bad news, addressing conflict, and how to best connect with your patient under a variety of circumstances.

8 lessons

26m 26s

Bedside manner and communication intro

23s

Addressing communication basics

3m 34s

Connecting with your patients

4m 57s

Delivering bad news

5m 2s

Communicating remotely

3m 45s

Addressing conflict

4m 53s

Implementing family conferences

3m 52s

Bedside manner and communication quiz

Quiz

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Chapter 5

Symptom management

Symptom management can greatly increase a patient's quality of life. This chapter discusses pain control as well as alleviation of other common symptoms in palliative patients.

10 lessons

38m 57s

Symptom management intro

37s

Evaluating pain and other symptoms

4m 12s

Treating pain with opioids

5m 24s

Treating pain with non-opioids

4m 57s

Managing dyspnea

4m 57s

Managing nausea and vomiting

3m 40s

Managing constipation

3m 14s

Managing delirium and agitation

7m 10s

Managing depression and anxiety

4m 46s

Symptom management quiz

Quiz

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Chapter 6

End-of-life considerations

This chapter shares how to recognize end-of-life signs, how to administer palliative sedation and other comfort measures, and how to proceed once the patient is deceased.

11 lessons

33m 52s

End-of-life considerations intro

43s

Recognizing when a patient is in their final days and hours

3m 57s

Using pharmacologic interventions

3m 14s

Using nonpharmacologic interventions

4m 4s

Deprescribing futile medications

4m 16s

Planning and preparing palliative sedation

4m 35s

Preparing to die at home

4m 28s

Caring for the deceased

3m 17s

Communicating death

4m 17s

End-of-life considerations quiz

Quiz

Palliative Care Essentials outro

1m 1s

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Teachers of this course

Sabrina Ribeiro, MD PhD

Sabrina is a board-certified intensive care, emergency, and palliative care specialist who works as an Intensivist at Hospital Geral de Fortaleza, Ceará, Brasil. She is an Intensive Care professor at Federal University of Ceará and a Palliative Care professor for the Associação de Medicina Intensiva Brasileira (AMIB), teaching palliative and end-of-life care in several states in Brazil. She is also a Medical Coordinator for the Palliative Care Service at the Monte Klinikum Hospital in Fortaleza.

Teacher Profile

Medmastery

Nora Drenaline

Clinical reasoning and examination

Claim your certificate

All members receive a certificate for completing this course. For Pro members, the certificate comes with 4 CME credits.

CME accredited

All our courses and workshops are fully CME accredited. We provide USA AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ and European CME credits (ECMEC®s). Pro members can download their CME certificates upon successful completion of activities. Want to transfer these credits to your national system? No problem.

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CME at its best

Award-winning teaching method

Winner of the Comenius EduMedia Medal
For outstanding digital education—Berlin 2013
Highly commended by the British Medical Association
Awarded in the digital category of the BMA Book Awards—London 2017
Winner of the Comenius EduMedia Seal
For outstanding digital education—Berlin 2017
Internationally accredited
CME accredited in the USA and EU with mutual recognition agreements in most other countries.
Trusted institutional partner
Used by residency programs and universities around the world to train their clinicians and students.
Top-rated by our learners
Rated excellent by hundreds of users on Trustpilot, an independent reviewing platform.

What’s in it for you?

Master the most important skills

Learn any skill in under 5 hours

Save time and money

After completing this course, you will be able to

What's inside

Introduction to palliative care

Palliative care for special populations

Shared decision-making and advance care planning

Bedside manner and communication

Symptom management

End-of-life considerations

Claim your certificate

CME accredited

Winner of the Comenius EduMedia Medal

Highly commended by the British Medical Association

Winner of the Comenius EduMedia Seal

Internationally accredited

Trusted institutional partner

Top-rated by our learners