Taipei City Hospital

International Observership Program for Hospice Palliative Care

Training Unit
Department of Community Medicine; Center of R/D in community Based Palliative Care;
Department of Community Integrated

Program Duration
Two weeks to three months’, adjusted to application requirements.

Eligibility
This program is designed for international physicians or residents. Applicants should have a medical license from their country and should have adequate language ability in Chinese or English.
Students could apply after passing the unit evaluation.

Course Content

• Introduction to palliative care
• Humanistic care in healthcare management
• Advanced care planning
• Institution-based palliative care
• Palliative care ward
• Home-based palliative care
• Site activities and visits

Brief Description
In order to prevent and solve the pressing future problem of dependency, disability, and death, the system of community palliative care must be set up. Taipei city hospital aims to not only provide the best of end-of-life care service but also to improve the quality and value of life. Through family meetings we provide the patient and family with clear medical information, assist them advanced care planning, and involve them in every step of our management plan to achieve shared decision making. We have established a new culture in medical communication.
In addition to raising awareness and optimizing holistic care for patients with terminal cancer, we also have a lot of experience promoting quality of care for non-cancer terminal patients.
Our team provides high-quality home-based palliative care helps the patients spend their last days in a familiar environment peacefully, and works hard to present our patients, their family, our medical team, and the whole society from suffering.

Learning Aims
1. Learn how to work with professionals in a variety of fields。
2. Learn the skills to communicate with patients, family members, colleagues, professionals, and the community.
3. Learn about diseases or conditions that are common in home-based palliative care and make comparisons with hospital-based palliative care.
4. Learn about keys to prescriptions in home-based palliative care.
5. Learn about optimizing treatment in palliative care.
6. Learn about important skills in palliative care.
7. Learn about home-based palliative care systems, case management, and ethics and legal issues.