End-of-Life Care, Grief, and Loss is the third course in de Souza Institute’s comprehensive Education in Palliative Care (EPC) course series.. The course series is built on the 2017 de Souza online course, Interprofessional Education in Palliative and End of Life Care – Oncology (iEPEC-O).

About the EPC Course Series 

The EPC course series consists of three seperate courses that teach a comprehensive curriculum in palliative and end-of-life care: 

• Course 01 - The Palliative Approach to Care 
• Course 02 - Symptom Assessment and Management in Palliative Care
• Course 03 - End-of-Life Care, Grief, and Loss (this course)

These three courses cover a wide-range of competencies in providing person-centered care for patients living with serious illness such as cancer, end-stage renal disease (ESRD), heart failure, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Completing all three courses in the series will earn you the de Souza Certificate in Palliative and End-of-Life Care. 

Course 03 - End-of-Life Care, Grief, and Loss

The End-of-Life Care, Grief, and Loss course builds upon what you have learned in course 01 – the Palliative Approach to Care. This third course is divided into two sections and five modules. The first section, End-of-life Care, covers the sensitive topics of withdrawing and withholding life-sustaining interventions and how to assess, manage and support the patient's family through the physiological changes of dying. The second section, Grief, Loss, and Bereavement, covers how to help the patient, family, and care team to cope with loss, grief, and bereavement. Although you can complete the course modules at your own pace, you must complete all five modules, and the final quiz within five weeks of the course start date (this date can be found on the course information page in My Account).

Course Syllabus

By the end of this course, you will be able to: 

• Explain the principles of withholding or withdrawing the following life-sustaining therapies: artificial nutrition and fluids, dialysis, and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD).
• Describe how to help families and professionals find alternate ways to provide appropriate physical care and emotional support to the patient, when treatments such as food and fluids are withdrawn.
• Describe how to assess, manage, and support the patient's family through the physiological changes of dying.
• Differentiate between the concepts of loss, grief, and bereavement and describe personal factors that contribute to grief reactions.
• Differentiate between uncomplicated, complicated and anticipatory grief.
• Identify strategies for supporting patients and caregivers with "pre-loss" grief or anticipatory grief.
• Describe the assessment and management of prolonged grief.
• Differentiate the symptoms of grief from the symptoms of depression.
• Identify follow-up strategies to support bereaved family members.
• Recognize the signs and symptoms of burnout and compassion fatigue.
• Identify strategies for coping with job stress and strategies to prevent burnout.

Course Syllabus: View the course syllabus

Eligibility

This course promotes an interprofessional team based approach and is designed for any health professional caring for palliative and end of life care patients. 

Funding Opportunities: Please click HERE for more details.

Group pricing is available when you have 3 or more courses or participants. Click HERE for more details.

Payment must be received before you have access to the course. For more information, please visit our Cancellation & No Show Policy.

Participants can pay for this course online with a credit card, or send a cheque to: