Travel date: April 14, 2016
Name of Meeting/Event/Activity: VIII Latin American Congress on Palliative Care
Origin: Santiago, Chile / Destination: Mexico City, Mexico
I could update me on issues of interest in palliative care: Were there any ideas to apply what I learned with my team, I shared experiences with colleagues from around Latin America and Deepen my knowledge in palliative care.
With what they learned in discussions and shared experiences with different professionals I could think of strategies to improve the care we provide to our patients and obtain better results both in care of themselves and the team\'s performance. Initiate a monitoring plan in conjunction with the pharmaceutical chemist to take account of possible drug interactions in our patients in order to reduce unwanted side effects and as a secondary objective, decrease the opiophobia that still exists in our society showing that most symptoms associated with opioid use may be by direct interactions rather than side effects thereof. Increase the research, because only then the team\'s needs and population, so it improve our attention and our knowledge are detected. Exploit training and study instances like these congresses, to improve the level of knowledge of the equipment Keep updated the team on topics of interest to maintain and renew management protocols for our patients.
I believe that this scholarship is very well organized trip, is fair, use good criteria and give an opportunity for many professionals interested and motivated to learn and improve every day on behalf of our patients. I not think I should improve anything at the moment.
Currently in Chile, palliative care in cancer patients are recognized as a benefit which is covered by the government and ensures the care of patients who require it. But as I stressed earlier, it is not taken into account other chronic diseases that also require palliative care. Also, although we have access to various opioids and adjuvant medications, our therapeutic arsenal is limited compared to other countries, demonstrating our backwardness in these areas. Other important limitations that we see today in our country are: 1. The few existing palliative care units that can not cope with the large population of patients who need our services. 2. Lack of professionals interested and trained in this area. What causes us concern and the need to start implementing the subject in undergraduate palliative as such a necessary matter as any in the training of different professionals who work spheres of competence in this area. This not only for recent graduates may eventually serve as part of our teams, but to generate anxiety in some students to later want to continue on this path and be more professionals who are interested and work for our patients they are becoming older and have chronic diseases that need at a time of palliative care. And finally, research remains limited in our area, however at this congress could give us realize that we are concerned to study and investigate and thus detect our shortcomings and needs to improve in the not too distant future. Given the above and although the barriers and shortcomings are many and difficult to improve soon; with what I could observe and learn at this conference (points mentioned in the previous question), I can start generating the change in my palliative care unit to make a difference and to create a network that reaches into the ministry, since changes we need also require policies that support to be a global thing and change can be realized in order to provide the best care and the best results in our patients they need us both. They need good professionals, trained and interested in learning but above all and most importantly, be good human beings who work with love and passion for this area of important health and even as \"abandoned\" in most countries Latin America.