Traveling Scholars Program Report
Maria Isabel Cuervo Suarez, MD
Travel date: October 2, 2018
Name of Meeting/Event/Activity: 22nd International Congress on Palliative Care
Origin: Cali, Colombia / Destination: Montreal, Canada
Photos
Maria Isabel Cuervo Suarez poster presentation How was this meeting/activity helpful to you?
Frequency and Clinical Characteristics Associated To Pediatric Deaths In A Tertiary Hospital in Developing Country. Opportunities for Pediatric Palliative Care
How will you new knowledge & acquired skills help in furthering your work in hospice and palliative care in your program/city/ or country?
All the lectures were good, especially the ones about pain, were very useful to know other non-pharmacological interventions that are validated with scientific evidence, and meet Dr. Eduardo Bruera who is the author of the literature on palliative care, which has guided us in Colombia for the attention we give to our patients. In the clinic where I work, I am also part of the pediatric palliative care team, and the workshop, called: supporting children grieving the death of a family member give me de opportunity to meet other professionals who work in the area from different countries and through the workshop we were able to know how each works in their teams. I attended different reviews of proffered papers; one was about advanced cancer: prognosis, role of physician, It was helpful because I learned how to estimate de prognosis so now I can anticipated the needs of patients and families, also learned the palliative care needs of patients living with motor neurone disease. I am a family doctor and this review helped me to know how from primary care we can impact the quality of life of patients with advanced disease from the first level of care and to do a better job with de patients and family who are in the program of palliative care in the clinic where I work. Every conference give me new knowledge in different area in palliative care, I assisted to the conferences in pediatric palliative care, neuropalliate care; attending the session about the benefits of early palliative care in the community, the effectiveness of advance care planning, supporting advance care planning in dementia palliative care. End-of-life care is important to address with the patient and their families from the beginning, when the patient is valued by our team, in addition to knowing how we can impact our community, educating about the care required by patients with advanced disease.
In the sessions of proffered papers about palliative care for young adults, decision-making conversations with young adults with serious conditions, I learned that as a family and medical doctor in pediatric palliative care, that the adolescent population, required special care, that conferences provide keys to improve communication with young people and in that way to meet their needs. The last day of the congress was at the conference session of proffered papers on pain and symptom control symptom and safety and efficacy in the methadone dance: application in palliative care; these conferences were of great impact because we dealt with how to evaluate the different symptoms in patients with advanced disease and finally pain management with one of the best medicines: methadone, the conference on methadone provide to me information on how to title it, most frequent adverse effects and how to handle them. In Colombia we do have methadone so it’s a great medicine to control pain, y learn how to do it very well.
How IAHPC Traveling Scholars Program be improved in order to help other future traveling scholars?
I remember very well the congress last day with the magnificent conference on compassion and caring as the way through, in which they showed how in a low income country they perform home palliative care and shared the photos of the places of the families that had a family member with advanced illness; while listening to experiences, it moved my feelings of love and compassion for those who suffer and for those places that do not have resources for palliative care. My country is one of them and from the place of my work we strive to provide help to those who need it and to provide guidance to doctors who work far away from the city to ensure that the rural population can also access palliative care. I would like to thank to IAHPC for the opportunity with the scholarship that I received to attend the international congress of palliative care in Montreal, the learning I received is a great value for our hospital in Colombia, and this helped my professional practice and my team practice. I attached several pictures of the congress in the different conferences that contributed to my knowledge and bring it to my work team in Cali Colombia.
Narrative summary highlighting the needs and challanges you face
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