Dying Well: The Role of Palliative Care and Sedation in End of Life Care

Learn from the experts at Lancaster University and various European countries

How people die stays with those who care about them. Dying well means being able to manage challenging symptoms in clinical care settings, which can sometimes involve the use of sedation or other care options.

On this three-week course from Lancaster University, you’ll learn the best practices for managing difficult end of life symptoms. With this knowledge, you’ll be able to improve your care practices as a health and social care professional or a family caregiver.

You’ll learn what it means to die well as you unpack patterns and experiences at the end of life. Exploring findings from a European Commission funded study, you’ll also discover the use of sedation and other care options you can use in your context.

Understand the role of palliative care

Through a variety of learning materials, including short videos, articles, discussions, and real-life case studies, you’ll discover the role of palliative care and sedation in helping people to die well.

This will help you gain an understanding of current palliative care practices and treatment options for end of life care across Europe and in the context of ethical and cultural differences.

Learn how to manage difficult symptoms with sedatives

Next, you’ll compare ethical and practical debates as well as evidence-based recommendations about the use of sedation in end of life care across European countries.

This exploration will help you learn how to manage difficult symptoms with sedation.

Explore recommendations for palliative sedation

Finally, you’ll explore the revised recommendations from the European Association for Palliative Care on palliative sedation.

You’ll then put your skills into practice as you prepare a plan about the use of sedation in your own clinical care setting or as a family caregiver.

This course is designed for health and social care professionals such as physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, and social workers.

You may work in palliative care units, hospital-based palliative care teams, hospices, community-based services, in nursing homes, or the wider healthcare system. Alternatively, you may be a family caregiver.

This course will help you provide better care for patients who experience difficult end of life symptoms.

• Dying well and the role of palliative care
• Introductions
• Introduction to dying and palliative care
• Patterns of dying and the idea of dying well
• Summary of the week
• Managing difficult symptoms with sedation
• Introduction to week 2
• Using sedation in palliative care
• Ethical dilemmas in the use of sedation
• Summary of the week
• Recommendations for using sedation in palliative care
• Introduction to week 3
• Unpacking the revised European framework on sedation in palliative care
• Practical challenges in using sedation
• Course summary and further information