As a palliative care nurse, educationalist and researcher, Professor Julia Downing works across many settings and countries, particularly in children’s palliative care. In October 2015, Julia, who is also an IAHPC board member, received a grant to attend the Global Colloquium in Dublin. We asked her to tell us what a Traveling Scholarship meant to her in terms of value to her practice.
Having worked internationally in palliative care for many years, I’m aware of the many challenges that we face in implementing palliative care, both for adults and children. Whilst myths exist against the use of strong analgesics such as oral morphine, these are intensified when thinking about children’s palliative care. When trying to develop palliative care services for children we face a lack of understanding of what palliative care is, a lack of awareness about pain and symptom management in children, even whether children, especially babies, actually feel pain.
Many health professionals have not had training in palliative care and so when faced with a child needing palliative care they feel ill equipped to cope with it, whether in terms of the physical symptoms, or the psychological, social or spiritual issues. Thus, education and sensitization about palliative care for children is essential – not just for those specializing in palliative care, but for everyone working with children including teachers, religious leaders, political leaders. We need to make sure that everyone knows what palliative care is and that something can be done to relieve suffering.
In my work in Uganda, and internationally, we are continually looking at the model of care that we are using, particularly in children’s palliative care, and there is not much written about this, so having the opportunity to talk to people working in different places, with differing resources, was very helpful. Hearing about lessons learnt was helpful as we seek to avoid making the same mistakes as others, as well as hearing how others have overcome some of the challenges we face each day.
Access to medications is a big issue in some places, particularly with regards to access to pediatric formulations, so it was good to be able to discuss this with key people working on access to medications, and to see how this can be improved in different countries. My work with the International Children’s Palliative Care Network means that I am visiting and supporting countries where I have never been before and so being able to hear first hand of some of the challenges, but also the great amount of work that is being done, means that I will be able to link up with new colleagues.
I was struck by the wealth of experience in palliative care that’s around. By pooling ideas, sharing and learning from each other we can develop and enhance our own skills, and the ongoing provision of palliative care. For example, some organizations are really strong in spiritual care – what can we learn from them as we try to integrate the spiritual component into our services? What can we learn from those that are strong in pain and symptom management? How can we work together to ensure that we all have access to adequate medications for pain and other symptoms, including for children? How can we maximize our potential for providing psychological care and draw on lessons learnt from others? Likewise, for many of the programs that I work with, the area of social care is a challenge as the resources are low or limited – we cannot change their circumstances but we can support them.
However, often the key lessons learnt are not published, it is through word of mouth that we hear what is going on and what we can apply to our own settings. Hence, it’s important to keep these traveling scholarships going as they enable people to attend meetings and conferences that they would otherwise be unable to attend – and there are not many places that make such scholarships available.
Read Julia’s bio here.
Thanks to a grant from the All Ireland Institute for Hospice and Palliative Care in Dublin, the IAHPC was able to award 18 Traveling Scholarships to palliative care professionals from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America, enabling them to take part in the Global Colloquium, held in Dublin, Ireland on 14-15 October 2015. Read more reports in the January and February editions of the IAHPC Newsletter.
To find out more about IAHPC’s Traveling Scholarships and other opportunities, please visit our website.
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