Travel date: April 14, 2016
Name of Meeting/Event/Activity: VIII Latin American Congress on Palliative Care
Origin: Bogota, Colombia / Destination: Mexico City, Mexico
I can learn about pain management, trends in research, teaching strategies to palliative care. I met different people working in the area of palliative care in Latin-American.
I’m a teacher in the Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Bogotá. This year I think design a diploma in palliative care nursing. I will participate in call for research in palliative care. I will teach my students the importance of palliative care. In the Hospital I will take better care of my patients.
The IAHPC Traveling Scholarship is excellent. I covered part of the registration and tickets. It’s important to continue this support for future events. Thank you.
I think one of the most important challenges is to raise the awareness the health team about caring for people who are at the end of life. Understand that this is a stage that is the key family support, counseling patients and their caregivers for proper hospital-home transition. The main needs and challenges in Colombia are oriented towards: Generate training programs in palliative care from the universities. Develop continuous updating courses on topics such as pain and symptom management, medication management subcutaneously and addressing ethical aspects of family and caregivers. I think there is still much ignorance in pain management, use of opioids and other analgesics, management subcutaneously. It is necessary to consolidate programs in oncology palliative care in other chronic diseases and paediatrics. Consolidate collaborative work networks linking support staff, academia and business. Define common lines of research from focus groups and experts. Strengthen the publication of research results in Latin America. Explore qualitative research methods to facilitate the description of the experience for the patient and his family, meanings and process. Develop research projects in the area with funding from national and international agencies. To make international and national exchanges between academics and assistance through internships and short stays pairs. It is the first time I participate in events of the Latin American Association of palliative care. The experience brought me in aspects such as: 1) Know ongoing research projects and already completed in the area. 2) Identify national and international academic peers who work in the area of palliative care. 3) Share experiences in the training of nurses in the area of palliative care. 4) Expand symptom management knowledge, skills training for human resources and the ethical component among others.