This Regional Palliative Care Collaborative provides a wide range of updates for clinicians and ancillary professionals who care for patients and families with serious illness.  These will provide up-to-date knowledge of the growing set of treatments (e.g. medications, medical marijuana, and non-pharmacologic options), supportive care for families facing challenging symptoms (such as delirium), and options for end-of-life care.  Current knowledge of this subject matter is essential to enable professionals to provide the best care to their patients.  
The Collaborative caters to a spectrum of providers with expertise of varying levels.  Everything from basic level review of palliative care topics for those early in their careers, through state of the science updates for exceptionally experienced providers.  Topics related to advance care planning, cultural competence, and management of delirium - a very distressing and common symptom at end-of-life, will be discussed during plenary sessions.  Self-care, symptom management, the finances of palliative care, and improved communication will be covered in workshops.
Learning opportunities are designed both for those with a focus on pediatric palliative care as well as adult-focused palliative care and for those who fall in between.  Participants are encouraged to take practical, evidence-based techniques, theory, and practices back to their institutions to enhance their care of patients and families.

Learning Objectives

After participating in this course, participants should be able to:

• Describe the pros and cons of advance care planning.
• Manage culturally-sensitive care to patients and families from any background.
• Describe an interdiscplinary approach to challenging symptom management in any hospital setting.