New Paediatric Palliative Care Education Initiative

Dr Gemma Aburn, project lead, delivering an education session in Northland

Paediatric Palliative Care is currently untenable, inequitable and inadequate for children faced with serious illness and their whānau, in Aotearoa. International literature has highlighted that a lack of access to education for health professionals is a significant barrier to implementation of quality delivery of paediatric palliative care.

The Education in Palliative and End of Life Care for Pediatrics (EPEC-Peds) curriculum was developed in 2012, by a group in the United States of America. This curriculum is internationally recognised as a high-quality curriculum with demonstrated results in changing practice. This recent paper published by members of Te Ārai explores how the curriculum has been adapted to meet the needs of clinicians working with children in Aotearoa New Zealand. We have particularly explored how tikanga Māori has been integrated into the programme to create a culturally relevant and safe space for practitioners to learn.

The Paediatric Palliative Care education programme described is now a formalized University of Auckland short course and will be offered later this year on 1-2 December 2025, at the Grafton Campus, University of Auckland. Please contact Dr Gemma Aburn – gemma.aburn@auckland.ac.nz if you are interested in attending this programme.