Read in the latest issue of the Danish journal “Omsorg” about our leadership course and important and fascinating projects of the course Alumni, which will influence the future practice of palliative care: Click here to gain access to the article!
Dr. Georg Bollig, Associate Professor of Palliative Care at the University of Southern Denmark, who successfully completed the course in 2019, and Dr. Gerrit Frerich, who successfully coordinated the EUPCA course from the beginning, give exciting insights into the structure of the course, which has expanded the leadership capacity in palliative care in Europe and beyond over the last seven years.
Georg Bollig’s Last Aid project will be presented afterwards and is particularly impressive in its transformation into an international movement. The article concludes with brief descriptions of other alumni projects, providing an exciting insight into the need to advance palliative care worldwide and how our alumni are contributing to it.
If you would like to learn more about the EUPCA leadership course, please do not hesitate to contact us!
The EAPC Task Force for international leadership capacity building has been established! Read the latest EAPC blog entry to find out what we are all about and where your support is needed!
We would like to strongly encourage you to share suggestions regarding national leadership experts or leadership courses with us until 1stMay! You can reach us via mail at tf-leadership@uk-koeln.de
If you are a provider of a leadership course, you will find our survey with questions about the course here. We would be very pleased to receive it filled out and returned to the e-mail address given!
In the week of February 3, our participants arrived in the exciting metropolis to further deepen their leadership skills and competencies. Under the coordination of Prof Dr Jonathan Koffman, an interesting, instructive and entertaining course week was organized by our cooperation partners in London. The course week was held at the Weston Education Centre of the renowned King’s College.
The main focus of the past course week was research, which is an essential component for planning, implementing and evaluating innovative projects in palliative care. In addition to fundamental questions, such as what ethical issues can arise in the field of research or how to critically read scientific literature, specific topics, e.g. how to measure outcomes or how to write an abstract, were also discussed. The corresponding expertise was imparted both theoretically in the form of lectures and practically in workshops.
The highlight of the course week for the participants was certainly the visit to the St. Christopher Hospice, which was founded in 1967 by the Grand Dame of palliative care, Ms Cicely Saunders.
A former fellow student of Dame Saunders and co-founder of the palliative care movement is Dr Mary Baines – a true leadership expert from the very beginning! The students got to know this outstanding personality in a personal lecture, were able to ask questions and gain an authentic insight into the development of palliative care.
The St. Christopher Hospice also offered the participants further in-depth insights into the concepts that make hospice famous as a driver of innovation, like their quality management or their new Learning Hub.
It was a very successful week and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all participants, lecturers and the organisation team in London!
“My best experience as a leader was developing and running one of the world’s leading M.Sc. in Pallative Care […]”
Learn more about Jonathan Koffman’s experience as a leader in Palliative Care in this video!
We are delighted to announce our next pre-conference session at May’s EAPC-Congress about leadership in palliative care on
Wednesday, 13th May 2020 from 3:00 – 6:00 pm in the Astoria Palace Hotel, Via Montepellegrino 62, 90142 Palermo, Italy.
The open workshop on the topic “Sustaining Leadership skills and Strategies in Palliative Care and End of Life Care (EUPCA and LDI)” will be chaired by Raymond Voltz, Germany and Frank D. Ferris, United States.
The session will start with a keynote presentation on approaches to sustaining leadership skills and strategies. Then, selected Alumni from the EUPCA and LDI leadership courses will illustrate their personal development, how they sustain their leadership skills, and the impact of their leadership projects.
Join the discussion about these important issues! No advance registration required, all interested persons are welcome.
We were very happy to welcome the Palliative Care experts of the fourth cohort of EUPCA at the University Hospital Cologne/Germany on Monday 23th September. We started the new generation of EUPCA with experts come from 13 European countries and for the first time from three Non-European countries: Bangladesh, Iran and New-Zealand. These experts from seven different professions are being trained in leadership skills during the next 1.5 years.
Aim of this unique further education course is to prepare specialists in palliative care for prospective leadership tasks in their professional lives. The European Palliative Care Academy focuses on Personal Development, Project Management, Teamwork, Research Methods and Advocacy and supports participants to successfully implement their personal project in their region or institution.
During the first course week in Cologne all modules where introduced and the participants achieved skills primary in Project Management, tutored by Prof. Dr Raymond Voltz and Dr Christiane Kuch from Germany and in Personal Development, tutored by Prof. Dr Daniela Mosoiu and Malina Dumitrescu from Romania .
The group turned out to be a great mix from different countries, professions and backgrounds which made lively group sessions and interesting discussions possible.
We look back on a successful week and would like to thank all participants, lecturers and others involved!
On September 23 – 24, 2019, Adriana Caruntu attended the 2nd International Conference on Palliative Care in Prague, Czech Republic where she presented to palliative care specialists from USA, Canada, UK, Malta, Turkey, Slovenia, Italy , Finland, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Georgia, Pakistan, Brazil, Germany and China, the project that he developed at the European Academy of Palliative Care entitled “Curriculum of psychological counseling in palliative care”.
Adriana set out the research methods used internationally in this project, the importance of the academy teachers, the exchange of experience in other countries, the curricula models from other countries and the impact of the project at national level, in Romania.
In addition to the work presented, Adriana Caruntu participated for the first time as moderator of an international conference on palliative care. It was an honor to participate as moderator in Prague.
She said: “Thank you to the teachers of the European Academy of Palliative Care who contributed to my training and who supported me.
At the beginning of May 2019, Brasov hosted the fourth course of the European Palliative Care Academy. The 20 participants from 14 countries, with a wide range of professional qualifications and experiences in developing palliative care, attended the last leadership module before their graduation as the third generation of EUPCA leaders.
After completing the previous modules on Project Management at the University Hospital in Cologne, Research Methods at King’s College in London and the Teamwork module at the Hospice and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Gdansk, in Brasov the participants became familiar with the concept of advocacy. The module enabled the future leaders to understand the cycle of advocacy and specific techniques that would help them in advancing palliative care in their countries and palliative care settings. The sessions were structured so as to bring theoretical aspects and steps in the strategic planning cycle together with practical exercises that participants would apply in their specific advocacy situations. Other topics in the field of advocacy were targeted at developing abilities to analyzing laws and policies and writing position papers or briefing notes, preparing face-to-face meetings with authorities and decision-makers. A special chapter was dedicated to increasing the future leaders’ capacity to deal with the media and understand its manifold facets that can be valued in promoting palliative care to the public. Participants learned to draft press releases and to prepare successful interviews for various types of media; a special share was dedicated to understanding and dealing with modern social media. As a practical exercise, leaders were supported to prepare, record and analyze a short interview.
It became a tradition for all participants to put in practice the interview abilities acquired and give short motivational interviews at the end of the EUPCA leadership course. This was a practical exercise that brought both excitement and satisfaction for successfully speaking in front of cameras and microphones. The testimonies recorded witness the participants’ growth as leaders of a new generation of palliative care advocates.
The module on Personal Development, conceived based on the transformational leadership theory, has been a key area in supporting the participants throughout the course to grow as authentic leaders. During this module the topics presented focused on the Leadership journey and the 5 stages and practices in the leadership journey and the Leadership Practice Inventory (LPI). Participants were guided to explore their preferences on how they perceive the world around and how they make decisions, by critically analyzing the results of their Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) questionnaire. The final session was a review and reflection on their leadership journey and personal growth over the past 1,5 years or the EUPCA course.
As previously done in the other modules in Berlin, London and Gdanks, it was the turn of the Brasov HOSPICE Casa Sperantei to present its complex services, education programs and advocacy achievements over the past 27 years, as an example of Best Practices model. The visit to the Hospice was much appreciated by the participants.
By the end of the course, the participants completed their personal projects aimed to bring a change in the field of palliative care in their countries or organizations.
Beyond the time spent in class activities, the venue provided by the Kolping hotel and conference center in Brasov proved again to be a good environment for socializing and strengthening the network among the participants. Brasov was a good host for pleasant walks after the intensive workdays of the leadership courses, and the afternoon spent in Bran’s Dracula castle added both excitement and relaxation to a week of learning experience.
The future leaders graduating the third EUPCA course made a commitment to keep the network active and to set up an EUPCA Alumni Platform. The purpose of this initiative is to support each other and continue the international collaboration between the present group of leaders and those of the previous two series of graduates, and possibly research on sources of European fundings for innovative projects in palliative care. This initiative was welcomed by the EUPCA Steering Committee and would also be presented and at the 16th World Congress of the European Association for Palliative Care in Berlin (23-25 May 2019).
The whole EUPCA team would like to congratulate the 2017-2019 graduates for their hard work and commitment. We wish them every success in their passionate leadership work to promote palliative care in Europe.
