Health Education England, working across the East of England: Palliative Medicine
Palliative Medicine has been recognised as a specialty since 1987; it is the medical component of the holistic care offered to patients and carers, when a patient has incurable and advancing disease with a limited prognosis. Control of physical symptoms, particularly pain and caring for the psychological, social and spiritual aspects of life are paramount. The focus of care is quality of life.
The knowledge base and skills of the specialty first developed in hospice care mainly for cancer patients, but have now extended and are applicable to medical practice in all areas. In Anglia a career in palliative medicine offers the opportunity to work within hospices, palliative care units, the community, district general hospitals and regional specialist centres.
More information about some of the unique opportunities available for palliative medicine trainees in the East of England can be found by looking at the links on the right and the drop down boxes below.
The four year training programme for Palliative Medicine is provided in a variety of settings, including independent hospices, NHS hospices, district general hospitals, teaching hospitals and community based services. Trainees rotate annually to benefit from the experience offered by the different training posts. On call is non – resident throughout the locations and there is no acute medicine cover. Broadly speaking the rotations may be based in the north of the region, the west, or the south east.
The wide geographical area of the East of England offers a variety of urban, suburban and rural settings. The trainees run a monthly training day rotating through the different locations. This provides the opportunity to explore clinical scenarios in depth, address aspects of the curriculum not regularly encountered in practice and to network with their colleagues. They are actively encouraged to participate in multi-centre audit and research. Opportunities to participate in teaching in formal and informal settings are numerous.
|
Location |
Trust / Hospice |
|
Norwich |
Priscilla Bacon Centre |
|
Norwich |
Norfolk and Norwich NHS Trust |
|
Peterborough |
Thorpe Hall (Sue Ryder Care) |
|
Cambridge |
Arthur Rank |
|
Cambridge |
Addenbrooke's |
|
Basildon |
Basildon Hospital (with on call at St Luke's) |
|
Bedford |
St John's (Sue Ryder Care) |
|
Letchworth |
Garden House |
|
Colchester |
St Helena |
|
Chelmsford |
Farleigh |
|
Ipswich |
St Elizabeth |
|
Southend |
Southend Hospital (with on-call at Fairhavens) |
- Completion of a core medical training programme or equivalent.
- Documented evidence of achievement of level 1 competencies in general internal medicine (acute) and generic curricula.
- MRCP(UK) Part 1 or equivalent at time of application or the first part (if applicable) of other qualifying examinations.
- MRCP(UK) Full Diploma or equivalent or MRCGP (with CCT) or FRCA or FRCS or MRCS (full) or equivalent by time of appointment.
- An enquiring approach to both people and diseases
- Good communication skills
- Ability to work with and utilise all the skills of a multidisciplinary team
- A sense of adventure – pioneering novel approaches to complex problems
- A good sense of humour
Further Advice |
Position |
Location |
| Dr Kath Oakley | Training Programme Director |
St Helen Hospice, Colchester |
| Dr Sarah Bell | Training Committee Chair / Regional Speciality Advisor | Garden House Hospice Care, Letchworth |
| Dr Fraz Mir | Head of School of Medicine | Health Education England, working across the East of England |
| Dr Sarah Scott | ST4 (SpR) in Palliative Medicine | Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice, Peterborough |
| School of Medicine Administrator | NNUH |
Please click on the names above to send an email (your email should load).
Detailed guidance on the Palliative Care assessment blueprint and curriculum is available from the JRCPTB website.
For a full list of upcoming training events and study courses aimed at all medical specialties within the region - Please visit the following links:
- The Upcoming Events Page, where you can find information on a range of upcoming courses
- The School of Medicine Calendar, where you can see events and courses by month
Introduction to the specialty from a trainee perspective
- Palliative Medicine is a fantastic specialty that allows you to truly care for patients and their families. It involves multidisciplinary teamwork and lateral thinking. The specialty is patient focused rather than doctor focused, making it particularly rewarding.
- Involves holistic care; not only treating complex physical symptoms but considering emotional, spiritual, psychological and social needs. We tend to involve the family throughout the patient journey.
- The training programme is four years if one is working full time.
- In this time trainees are expected to experience Palliative medicine in multiple settings (inpatient hospice, community and acute hospital trust).
- At least one year must be spent in a specialist inpatient unit with at least ten beds, six month cumulative experience in community specialist care and six months in an acute hospital trust are all required to complete training.
- Trainees will also be involved in supervising and educating junior colleagues, medical students and other healthcare professionals.
- There are opportunities to be involved in medical student teaching at Cambridge University.
Useful contacts
Training Programme Director: Dr Kath Oakley
Email: koakley@sthelena.org.uk
Curriculum /Eportfolio
- All trainees must enroll with the JRCPTB to have access to the e-portfolio.
- http://www.jrcptb.org.uk/specialties/palliative-medicine
- We only have the Palliative Medicine curriculum. We currently do not dual accredit in GIM. There is a ‘Physicians academic checklist’ in the curriculum section which allows us to record non clinical parts of the curriculum (e.g. teaching).
- A new decision aid was released in September 2015.
- The DOPs have changed in the last few years but are clearly listed in the decision aid.
- Paracentesis is the only DOPS that requires two assessors on two different occasions to complete summative forms.
- Requirements for assessments clearly listed on the ARCP decision aid. Assessments consist of curriculum requirements, reflections and WPBAs.
- Unique to Palliative medicine is the ‘Palliative Medicine reflection form’ – two are required per year. These will include comments from consultant supervisors These are referred to as Records of reflective practice (RRP) on the ARCP decision aid. (Other reflections during the year can be completed on generic reflection forms).
- Multiple consultant report – Two are required annually in addition to educational supervisors report
ARCP
- Requirements for assessments clearly listed on the ARCP decision aid. Asessments consist of curriculum requirements, reflections and WPBAs.
- Unique to Palliative medicine is the ‘Palliative Medicine reflection form’ – two are required per year. These will include comments from consultant suporvisors These are referred to as Records of reflective practice (RRP) on the ARCP decision aid. (Other reflections during the year can be completed on generic reflection forms).
Reading list
- Oxford Handbook of Palliative Medicine
- Palliative Care formulary. Currently 5th Edition.
- BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care
- Palliative Medicine journal (via APM membership).
- Association of Palliative Medicine – Tall trainees are encouraged to join the APM. They publish the Palliative Medicine journal and two yearly Congress.
- https://heeoe.hee.nhs.uk/palliative_medicine has a lot of useful information about training in the region (please menu on right hand side).
Diary
- Training days are monthly and rote between different sites.
- Registrars take turns to organise the training day at their own place of work. This includes arranging speakers, venue and sometimes lunch! Trainee rep helps to co-ordinate this and keeps records of attendees and topics.
- Topics are chosen by the trainee organising the study day depending on the speakers they have access to in their particular area.
- We try to choose topics that we may not encounter in every day clinical practice or are more non-clinical. Therefore we aim to cover as much of the curriculum as possible.
- It is the responsibility of the trainee to organise speakers and book an appropriate room for the study day in their place of work (with help from admin support staff for booking).
- In general January and June training days are in Addenbrooke’s/Arthur Rank Hospice and tend to be about research. We endeavor to conduct research in small groups led by trainees and supported by consultants.
- The trainee rep keeps a list of topics covered and attendance and forwards to the training programme director.