Interested in developing you knowledge and skills? This course is ideal for experienced doctors and nurses who are practising in palliative care and end of life care.
Oxford Centre for Education and Research in Palliative Care is delighted to collaborate with Dorothy House Hospice for the second year to bring you this Masterclass.
Topics are selected from the Oxford Advanced Course in Pain and Symptom Management 2024. Updates and new publications in the field are added to the teaching materials. A case based teaching approach is used face to face in the beautiful setting of Dorothy House Hospice.
See the course programme section for a full description of topics and timings.
Taking place on the 5th of March 2025, 09.00-16.30.
Location: Face to face
CPD Credits: 5 CPD points (application in progress)
+ Venue
Strathcarron Hospice, Fankerton, Scotland
+ Speakers
Dr Mary Miller - Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Sobell House, Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer in Palliative Medicine, University of Oxford, Director of OxCERPC, and Clinical Lead for NACEL.
Dr Miller qualified from University College Cork, Ireland in 1988. She trained and worked in palliative medicine in Ireland, Sweden, and the UK and has been a consultant in palliative medicine in Oxford since 1998. Dr Miller has a strong interest in education; completing a Diploma in Learning and Teaching at Oxford University 2005, was Training Programme Director and Regional Specialty Advisor (2002 – 2008) and has led the Oxford Advanced Courses in Pain and Symptom Management since 2005. She is an elected member of the Education Committee of the Association of Palliative Medicine and joint lead of the postgraduate education special interest forum. Since the inception of OxCERPC in 2017, Dr Miller and the team are focusing on building an exciting portfolio of courses, building research readiness and reaching out to practitioners across the globe.
Dr Sally Boa - Head of Palliative Care Education, Research and Practice Development at Strathcarron Hospice.
Dr Boa originally trained as a Speech and Language Therapist and over her career has worked in the NHS and third sector, primarily with adults with acquired communication disability. Throughout this time, she has been passionate about the importance of multidisciplinary, person centred care and ensuring that the voice of the person and family are heard. In 2014 Dr Boa completed a PhD (funded by Strathcarron Hospice) which focused on developing, implementing, and evaluating a person-centred goal setting intervention. This is now used in the hospice to help professionals work with patients to identify what is important to them and support them to work towards and achieve important goals. This piece of work won the Scottish Health Innovation Award in 2013. Dr Boa now works at Strathcarron as Head of Palliative Care Education, Research and Practice Development. She is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Stirling and a member of the EAPC taskforce workstream on Rehabilitation in Palliative Care.
Dr Jeff Hanna - Lecturer in Clinical Cancer Nursing and Registered Nurse
Dr Jeff Hanna is a Lecturer in Clinical Cancer Nursing, which is a joint clinical academic appointment between Ulster University and South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust. Currently, Jeff's workload splits across 60% of research and teaching responsibilities at Ulster University and 40% as a registered nurse in an acute surgical unit at the Ulster Hospital, Dundonald. Jeff's research interests span across cancer care, end of life, bereavement and digital health. He has held previous academic positions at University of Oxford, University of Strathclyde and Queen's University Belfast. Jeff is an editorial advisory board member for the journal Palliative Medicine and is the UK Oncology Nursing Society champion for Northern Ireland.
+ Course Programmes
09.00 - Coffee and registration
09:15 - Welcome and Introduction
09:25 - End of life care for patients with Parkinson’s disease (Dr Mary Miller)
Caring for patients as they lose their oral route – goals of care, medications to use and those to avoid.
Thinking ahead and use of Rotigotine patches. Do you always need them?
10:10 - Hydration at the end of life (Dr Mary Miller)
Language used to discuss diminishing drinking, mouth care and hydration.
What does the evidence tell us and what is on the horizon?
10:40 - Coffee Break
11:10 - Benzodiazepines: an update (Dr Mary Miller)
Are these the best medications for the management of anxiety and delirium at the end of life?
Are there other options when consciousness is a priority?
11:45 - Annual Strathcarron lecture (Dr Sally Boa)
12:45 - Lunch
13:45 - Breathlessness (Dr Mary Miller)
Look at the evidence – do opioids and Mirtazapine work in the management of breathlessness?
What else can we use?
14:30 - Break
14:45 - The care of children when their important adult is dying (Dr Jeff Hanna)
Thinking of future generations, looking for the children in the family and supporting their important adults to have important conversations.
16.15 - Final remarks
16:30 - Close of day
+ Course Aims
Knowledge to inform your practice
Resources from which to continue learning and adapt that learning in practice
A means of ensuring your practice compares with ‘good practice’, benchmarking against your peers
Stimulation, time for thinking and reflection
