Online palliative care course for health care leaders.

LEAP™ Leaders is a unique learning opportunity for health system leaders and administrators looking to improve access to palliative care and integrate palliative care into the health systems and services they lead.

This online course provides health care leaders at all levels of leadership with the knowledge, insights, and resources to improve the palliative care aspects of their services. This includes better understanding of what palliative care is and the impact on patients and health care services, palliative care service components that are needed, and the data and evidence to support these. It will address how many palliative care and hospice beds are needed in a region and the strengths and limitations of different service models. LEAP™ Leaders will help leaders review their services and develop business plans and initiatives to better integrate (or endorse) palliative care delivered to their patients with serious illnesses.

LEAP™ Leaders is available in English only.

“I have started engaging other specialties in raising awareness of palliative care and ensuring that a palliative care perspective is included in the national health system and education discussions.”

LEAP™ Leaders learner

Who is it for?

LEAP™ Leaders is a unique learning opportunity for health care leaders, administrators, and policymakers. The course is designed for leaders at all leadership levels and applicable to many different settings of care. LEAP™ Leaders may also be useful for postgraduate learners in fields such as health services management and leadership.

Course features

• • Consists of 10 interactive, self-learning online modules completed over a six-month period and at your own pace plus two live webinars; approximately 25 to 30 hours of work in total.
  • Divided into two parts that can be completed over 6 months. Each part consists of 5 online modules followed by one 1.5-hour webinar.
    • • Part 1 focuses on what palliative care is, why it is needed (at both a generalist- and specialist-level), who provides it, and the impact on patients and the health care system.
      • Part 2 explores how to organize services, including staffing needs, and how to compare palliative care delivery across regions and internationally. For clinicians in the group, there is also an opportunity to complete several clinical modules that introduce core clinical concepts and approaches related to providing a palliative care approach.
  • The interactive webinars will include a panel of palliative care experts. They will provide opportunities to a) highlight key learnings from the self-learning modules, b) address emerging questions, and c) receive input on initiatives participants may be considering or undertaking to improve their palliative care services.
  • Webinar dates and times are listed at registration.
  • Integrates the leadership capabilities of the five domains of the LEADS framework.
  • Participants receive a LEAP™ certificate of completion.
  • Pallium Canada has partnered with the Canadian College of Health Leaders to offer a Health Leadership Specialty (HLS) in palliative care. Individuals with their Certified Health Executive (CHE) designation—a certification program for Canadian health leaders—can complete LEAP™ Leaders along with some additional requirements to receive an HLS in palliative care.

Accreditation

LEAP™ Leaders will be submitted for accreditation to the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of LEAP™ Leaders, learners should be able to:

• • Define what palliative care and the palliative care approach are, and their relevance to patients being cared for in your organization and the community you serve.
  • Be aware of own character attributes, values, biases and perceptions regarding palliative care, dying, death, and bereavement, and how these perceptions influence and impact advocacy and development of palliative care policies and initiatives.
  • Describe primary- and specialist levels of palliative care, the different types of palliative care services across different settings of care, and their inter-relationship from the perspective of patient access to timely palliative care. Then, reflect on the presence and availability of these services in your own organization and across your health care system.
  • Describe the needs that patients with serious illnesses experience with the goal of developing patient-centered strategies in your organization to address those needs..
  • Summarize the benefits to patients, your organization and its various services, and to your staff, when adequate palliative care access to patients is ensured.
  • Engage your staff to explore their experiences with providing palliative and end of life care across the different services you oversee.
  • Map out how palliative care is delivered in your organization and start identifying areas for possible improvement (change ideas).
  • Identify quality improvement opportunities in your organization related to improving palliative care.
  • Assess the preparedness of your workforce to address patient and family palliative care needs.
  • Advocate for and create policies, initiatives, and programs that enhance the care of patients with life-limiting or serious illnesses and their families.
  • Understand the LEADS framework and how the leadership capabilities are put into practice in leading systems change that promotes and advances the palliative care approach.

“From a leadership perspective, I can actively think and talk about how palliative care can be more integrated throughout the continuum of care for patients.”

LEAP™ Leaders learner

Topics covered include

• • The public health approach to palliative care
  • Levels of palliative care services
  • Models of palliative care services
  • A systems approach to palliative care
  • Consultation, shared care and take-over models
  • Barriers to palliative care access
  • The right number of beds and services
  • Palliative care workforce needs
  • Palliative care and the palliative care approach
  • Palliative care provision at the generalist/primary level and specialist level
  • Illness trajectories and how they impact the provision of palliative care
  • Physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and religious needs of patients with serious illnesses and the impact of palliative care on these needs
  • Palliative care services (consult and support teams in hospitals and the community, palliative care units, hospices, long-term care, emergency services, etc.) and their respective roles.