Traveling Scholars Program Report
Mamak Tahmasebi
Travel date: May 30, 2018
Name of Meeting/Event/Activity: 3rd ICPCN Conference: Inspiration, Innovation, Integration
Origin: Tehran, Iran / Destination: Durban, South Africa
Photos
Mamak Tahmasebi at conference How was this meeting/activity helpful to you?
There isn’t any under the name of children’s palliative care in Iran. The ICPCN conference inspired me to step out of my comfort zone; palliative care for adults, and to star it in my home town.
How will you new knowledge & acquired skills help in furthering your work in hospice and palliative care in your program/city/ or country?
I’ve already start to learn and teach children’s palliative care within a small group of physicians and nurses. The next step would be introducing it to the key pediatricians in medical universities and ask them to support for widespread education of basics of palliative care for children. And I have a plan to convince policy makers in health ministry for preparing appropriate formulation of morphine for kids.
How IAHPC Traveling Scholars Program be improved in order to help other future traveling scholars?
It would be a great opportunity for me to participate the ICPCN conference. Without IAHPC Traveling Scholarship joining these kinds of educational events will not be feasible.
Narrative summary highlighting the needs and challanges you face
I’m palliative care physician with no experience in children’s field. Being present in ICPCN Conference taught me children’s palliative care is not downsizing medications dosages. Although as a clinician expected to learn more about symptoms’ assessment and management. The conference was especially concentrated on inspiring audiences from different countries for "stepping out of their comfort zones" and being more active in children’s palliative care. Through the conference, I met people from different specialties who work for children and had a chance learning a lot from their amazing experiences. I have also heard for the first time about ICPCN website and decided to translate online courses for children’s palliative care to Farsi for encouraging Iranian nurses and physicians for working in this new field. Thanks again to IAHPC for making my journey easy.