Palliative Care Capstone Projects

In the Capstone Course you have the opportunity to put what you have been learning about in the Palliative Care Specialization into practice. Our team has created five activities that directly relate to what you have been learning in the course. You will need to talk with someone you know, perhaps a friend or family member, about their experiences living with serious and life limiting illness. You may want to engage several people as you go through the 5 assignments as they each will have unique experiences. The Five Assignments: 1) Use the Nature of Suffering Evaluation Form to guide your conversation with someone living with serious illness and report and reflect on how this illness is impacting different aspects of their lives. 2) Using SNAP/Self-Awareness skills explore the values of someone close to you and your own values as relate to health, illness and dying. 3) Using the WILDA tool complete a pain assessment with someone living with serious illness. 4) Using the ESAS tool complete a physical symptom assessment with someone living with serious illness. 5) Have a conversation with someone you know about Advance Care Planning. In the assignment you will focus on who would be the person that they would want to speak for them if they could not speak for themselves, often known as the MDPOA. When you successfully complete all 5 of these assignments and the other course work you will earn the Coursera Specialization Certificate in Palliative Care. More importantly you will be prepared to help others live well with serious and life-limiting disease.

• Nature of Suffering Capstone Project
• In this module you will use the Nature of Suffering Evaluation Form to guide your conversation with someone living with serious illness and report and reflect on how this illness is impacting different aspects of their lives. You may want to review the videos about the Nature of Suffering Evaluation form and how it guide a conversation with Ollie Green.
• SNAP and Self-Awareness Capstone Project
• It’s just natural to think that what we value and think is important about our health, our response to illness and our own death will be the same as other people around us. In fact, we all have unique perspectives that are informed by our life experiences and beliefs. Using SNAP/Self-Awareness skills explore the values of someone close to you and your own values as relate to health, illness and dying.
• Easing Pain Capstone Project
• Pain is complicated! Remember, there are three different types of pain and that the pain experience can help us understand how we can help people have better pain control, live better with pain and advocate with the healthcare system for help when pain is severe and contributing to suffering. Using the WILDA tool complete a pain assessment with someone living with serious illness.
• Easing Physical Symptoms Capstone Project
• Physical symptoms like, weakness and fatigue, loss of appetite, constipation, shortness of breath and many more are extremely common for people living with serious and life-limiting illness. The first step is to do a Physical Symptom Assessment to understand which symptoms are present and which ones are the most distressing. Use the ESAS tool complete a physical symptom assessment with someone living with serious illness.
• Advance Care Planning Capstone Project
• Most of the time people living with serious illness have been thinking about what might happen if they got sicker, the kinds of treatments they might want or not want and who they would want to speak for them if they could not speak for themselves. Unfortunately, this is usually not written down and the medical team and family and friends have not talked openly. You can help by having a conversation with someone you know about Advance Care Planning. In the assignment you will focus on who would be the person that they would want to speak for them if they could not speak for themselves, often known as the MDPOA.