Otway Division of General Practice

Palliative Care Education for

International Medical Graduates

The palliative care education day was a jointly organised with the Greater Green Triangle General

Practitioner Education & Training (GGTGPET)Program

•GGTGPET is a regional training provider and part of the Australian General Practice Training (AGPT) program funded by Department of Health & Ageing

•They cover 2 Divisions of General Practice – Otway and Limecoast in South Australia

•They provide a program for GP Registrars and a separate one for overseas trained doctors doing their GP training

•The aim of the program is to prepare the GP for the Fellowship exams

Each program in GGTGPET has a GP supervisor

The GP supervisor has to approve all education content

Palliative care topics do appear in the exams but GGTGPET had never organised any palliative care education for the IMGs (they do for the Registrar program)

GGTGPET

•The GP supervisor stated lack of confidence in palliative care knowledge and agreed to a PEPA placement

•The GP spent one day at Barwon Health and one at Warrnambool Community Palliative Care

•Was very positive about the experience and is promoting PEPA to all the IMGs

•After the PEPA placement was very responsive to the suggestion that palliative care be included in the training

GGTGPET staff contacted the IMGs, organised the venue and food

The venue was Colac Area Health and the IMGs from the Otway Division region was invited to participate. GGTGPET will organise another day for the Limecoast region

The education content was jointly organised

Morning session:◦ Palliative Care Physician from Barwon Health

invited to spend 2 hours but did 3 hours

◦ Presented a multiple choice questionnaire – gave the right answer but also explained why the others were wrong

◦ Covered physical, social and cultural issues

◦ Was able to totally involve all participants and lots of questions asked

Afternoon session:◦ Mock exam – 19 minute interview with a “patient”

◦ GP supervisor acted as the examiner and was able to give certain information if requested by the “Doctor”

◦ I was an observer and was given the opportunity to give feedback

◦ Very valuable general discussion afterwards especially around decision making with an individual versus family

Promotion of PEPA Discussion on other sources of palliative care

education Talk about the local palliative care services:

◦ What they offer◦ How to refer◦ Sharing patients

Therapeutic Guidelines Other resources:

◦ Nitty Gritty Handbook◦ PCA “Palliative and End of Life Care Glossary of Terms”

Using an established education provider – they are going to repeat this annually

Involving the local palliative care services

PEPA

Thank you for listening.Do you have any questions?