“I think that having a national Competency Framework helps everybody get on the same page and use similar language in their educational materials. This creates consistency across the country for the competencies that you need to deliver high-quality palliative care.”
Nadine Valk, Director, Education and Strategic Partnerships
Hospice Palliative Care Ontario
“I think that having a national Competency Framework helps everybody get on the same page and use similar language in their educational materials. This creates consistency across the country for the competencies that you need to deliver high-quality palliative care.”
Nadine Valk, Director, Education and Strategic Partnerships
Hospice Palliative Care Ontario
Cohesive and Inclusive Palliative Care Training Helps Health Care Providers, Patients and Their Families
Hospice Palliative Care Ontario (HPCO) wants to help create alignment in palliative care educational materials across Canada. The Canadian Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Competency Framework (Competency Framework) is a tool that can support this vision. As more organizations use the Competency Framework to guide the development of courses and educational tools, resources, workshops, and webinars, we can create more cohesive training opportunities that will benefit both patients and health care providers.
National Education
HPCO has adopted the Competency Framework for PACE for PSWs. In this online national palliative care education program, HPCO works in partnership with Life and Death Matters and the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association to provide personal support workers with the crucial skills needed to deliver better palliative care. When HPCO first began developing the curriculum for PACE for PSWs, they looked at the existing frameworks from Ontario, Nova Scotia and British Columbia to ensure the competencies covered in the training program were aligned with the national Competency Framework.
Understanding Palliative Care
HPCO also wants families, caregivers and the general public to better understand palliative care by recognizing that it does not solely refer to the last days or weeks of someone’s life, as is often believed. Expanding everyone’s knowledge of palliative care treatment will help normalize conversations about dying, death and grieving, as well as encourage conversations to support self-compassion and self-care.
Hospice Palliative Care Ontario is a provincial association for hospices and palliative care providers, professionals and volunteers across Ontario. HPCO envisions a future where every person and family in Ontario can quickly and easily access the highest quality of hospice palliative care when needed.
This project has been made possible through a financial contribution from Health Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of Health Canada.
