2004 - 2007 - Cicely Saunders Institute - King's College London

A specific ‘Palliative care for people with MS’ (PwMS)
education programme was undertaken and evaluated,
delivering a programme accessible to health and social
care professionals working with PwMS across
Southeast London. Nine study half days were
undertaken and the education programme was formally
evaluated, with 182 out of 234 (77%) participants
describing each topic as quite or very useful.
5.2 MSc, Postgraduate Diploma and Postgraduate
Certificate in Palliative Care
The philosophy underpinning the MSc in Palliative Care
(and the new qualifications – the Postgraduate Diploma
and Postgraduate Certificate) is to enable participating
students to develop the skills required to appraise
research and evidence on palliative care-related issues
to inform their clinical practice and to develop relevant
services. The MSc in Palliative Care, run in collaboration
with St. Christopher’s Hospice and with the support of
many talented external lecturers, who are experts in
specific topics, is now very well established with a 10-
year track record of providing a high class academic
experience. It is distinctive from other national and
international postgraduate palliative care degree courses
in the following ways:
1. The MSc is focused strongly on evidence and
on understanding research relevant to palliative care.
This is because palliative care is a relatively new
specialty. Knowledge about which interventions have
the potential to enhance quality of life for patients and
their families, be they pharmacological, psychological,
social or service-based, are still poorly
understood or do not exist.
2. The course is inter-professional. This allows
students to explore similarities and differences in
roles, skills, knowledge and their respective
ideologies. It also provides scope for greater
opportunity of open communication of all members
within a group, consequently alleviating future
hesitancy of single disciplines sharing knowledge
with other professionals and non-professionals.
3. The MSc, Postgraduate Diploma and Postgraduate
Certificate courses are truly international. We
have always encouraged applicants from beyond the
UK because the different working experiences and
cultures students bring with them enhance the
entirety of the course. All students therefore learn
about each others’ different funding arrangements for
palliative care and related services, service configurations
and their respective challenges, interventions to
manage care, as well as the diversity.
Many students who have successfully completed the
course have gone on to achieve promotion within their
respective professions. Of these students a large
number have attributed their progression directly to the
course experience. For more detail about the perceived
added-value of the MSc in Palliative Care please refer to
the recent evaluation of the MSc published in the
Journal of Palliative Care 155 .
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