Aims

The overall aim of the European Palliative Care Academy is to enhance Palliative Care in Europe by contributing to closing the gap in further education.

The aim of the course is to support future leaders to develop the necessary skills, abilities and expertise to advance palliative care across Europe and to address future challenges in the field.

Summary

The European Palliative Care Academy is an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung, a major German charitable foundation associated with a private company.

It is a joint project of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the four academic centres

  • University Hospital Cologne/ Germany
  • Nicolaus Copernicus University, Bydgoszcz/ Poland
  • Hospice Casa Sperantei, Brasov/ Romania
  • King’s College London/ United Kingdom

These institutions jointly developed a curriculum and will offer it to emerging palliative care leaders of all professional backgrounds. The academic institutions offer one face-to-face teaching week each, so that the participants will visit all four institutions throughout the course. The medium of instruction is English. In addition to the four teaching weeks, the participant will do one week of observation in a European palliative care institution of its choice.

Together with continuous assignments and a personal project the course comprises 600 hours and should be completed within 1.5 years. The course is to be completed part-time, enabling the participants to continue their work in palliative care. The first course will start in September 2013. The course will be repeated every two years.

Palliative care has been a concern of the Robert Bosch Stiftung for more than two decades. After supporting the German Hospice Movement in the 1980ies and 1990ies, it has mainly been supporting the advancement of palliative care for children and the elderly as well as the introduction of palliative care in South Eastern Europe, especially in the Republic of Moldova. With its new funding initiative – the European Palliative Care Academy – the Robert Bosch Stiftung is bringing its activities to a European level.