Every continent except Antarctica

Julie Bruno, Director of Education, AAHPM

I had the opportunity to represent AAHPM at the 18th International Congress of Palliative Care in Montreal in early October. This was my first time at this Congress and, with the help of AAHPM member and Congress attendee, Dr. Nancy Hutton, we talked with people practicing palliative care from every continent of the world except Antarctica at the opening reception. (Thank you, Nancy!) Many stopped by to learn about AAHPM and many were interested in our educational resources: The Primer of Palliative Care, Unipac QR, the Unipac Series, the newly released recording of the AAHPM Intensive Board Review Course and the upcoming Annual Assembly in Vancouver. It was interesting as a staff member to consider how AAHPM resources may serve a more international audience. I also appreciated greeting several AAHPM members who dropped by to say hello.

I would like to thank AAHPM President Dr. Sean Morrison for spending time staffing the AAHPM booth with me. Throughout the week, we talked with attendees about Board certification and on line resources – both the AAHPM website for professionals as well as the patient family website, palliativedoctors.org . The Congress was trilingual (Spanish, French and English). If we think we struggle with a clear definition of hospice and palliative care in the US, imagine the challenges at this international conference!

Two stories from my time at the conference are staying with me… Mr. Li Ka-shing has developed National Hospice Service Program in Mainland China through the Li Ka Shing Foundation (LKSF). They have 220 field staff, 31 hospice units and have served 94,212 patients as of August 2010. They target underprivileged patients and provide free home-based care with a key focus on pain relief. The LKSF foundation has donated a total of US$ 40M, 89% spent on medications. He concludes his story by saying that they are serving 1% of the people who are dying in China. (www.hospice.com.cn) That took my breath away!

The other story came from Susan Kristiniak from Abington Memorial in Philadelphia. She shared the story of attending the 2009 AAHPM and HPNA Annual Assembly in Austin along with some of her colleagues. They were so energized by the conference that they went home and developed a four-hour nursing in-service training with a goal of reducing unrelieved pain. Using hospital data, they were able to prioritize need and started with the post-surgical unit that included 77 nurses who were mandated to attend this training. The unit showed a significant reduction in pain scores. Based on the feedback from the nurses on that unit, the training has been refined and is being rolled out on the orthopedic unit. To learn more about this project, Susan welcomes emails at skristiniak@amh.org.

The International Congress happens every other year. It is worth the experience.

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