Travel date: July 27, 2017
Name of Meeting/Event/Activity: Asia Pacific Hospice Conference
Origin: Quezon City, Philippines / Destination: Suntec City, Singapore
This conference enables me to widen my knowledge and perspective on the latest updates in managing patients not only medically but also the psychodynamics management in palliative care, not only so, but the conference also taught me new perspective in teaching hospice and palliative skills and knowledge to medical students as well.
My profession as a clinical instructor in University of Santo Tomas enables me to impart my new and updated knowledge on hospice and palliative care to my medical students.
This scholarship has been a great help in assisting young professionals in our country to gain knowledge and experience new skills in hospice and palliative conference.
Main needs and challenges in the provision of palliative care in the Philippines: 1) Stigma of hospice and palliative care is still high among other medical professionals hampering the inter-collaboration management, 2) Access of pain medications like morphine, fentanyl, oxycodone in provinces or towns outside the City. 3) Insurance (Philhealth and other HMOs) lacks coverage for hospice and palliative care, hence hindering its accessibility to the needs of the people. The skills and learnings I gained from this conference to overcome this barrier: As a part time new faculty in University of Santo Tomas College of Medicine and Surgery, the knowledge and perspective I gained in the conference is to start educating the medical students early on about hospice and palliative care, as they are the future physicians, teaching them about such knowledge that is at par with international perspective, teaching them early, on the importance of managing a patient holistically and application of hospice and palliative care in their practice.