The Education in Palliative Care (EPC) Course Series

Learn how to integrate the palliative approach to care into your practice!

The Education in Palliative Care (EPC) course series will introduce you to providing person-centred palliative care for patients living with serious illness such as cancer, end-stage renal disease (ESRD), congestive heart failure (CHF), or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). With palliative care support, patients report fewer symptoms, better quality of life, and greater satisfaction with their care.

The Education in Palliative Care (EPC) course series consists of three courses that teach a comprehensive curriculum in palliative and end-of-life care:

* Prerequisite: Successful completion of Course 01 – The Palliative Approach to Care (EPCA) course is required to register in this course.

Completing all three courses in the series will earn you the de Souza Certificate in Palliative and End-of-Life Care.

The certificate signifies that you have obtained a comprehensive education and reached a standard of knowledge about palliative care based on the CHPCA national principles and norms of practice and the de Souza Interprofessional Competency framework.

The Education in Palliative Care (EPC) course series

The Palliative Approach to Care (EPCA)

The Palliative Approach to Care course is the foundational course in de Souza Institute’s Education in Palliative Care (EPC) course series. It is divided into three sections with ten modules in total. The first course section, Serious Illness Conversations, teaches in-depth strategies for how to have difficult conversations with patients regarding prognosis, life-expectancy, goals of care, and advance care planning. The second section, Comprehensive Pain and Symptom Assessment, introduces you to pain and symptom assessment from a holistic and patient-centred approach. The third section, Person and Family-centred Palliative Care, explores working with the patient and their caregivers as the unit of care and resolving potential conflicts around care decisions.

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The Education in Palliative Care (EPC) course series

Symptom Assessment and Management in Palliative Care (EPCB)

Symptom management is a core skill in palliative care that improves the quality of life of patients living with serious illness. This second course is divided into four modules and one case-based practice activity covering the focused assessment and management of four common symptoms experienced by patients in palliative care: pain, delirium, nausea and vomiting, and dyspnea.

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The Education in Palliative Care (EPC) course series

End-of-Life Care, Grief, and Loss (EPCC)

Learn how to discuss the sensitive topics of life-sustaining therapy, the management of symptoms that occur as a patient is dying, and how to assess the ability of the patient, family, and care team to cope with loss, grief, and bereavement. This third course is divided into two sections and five modules. This 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. 

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About the EPC Course Series

Explore interactive online modules that are accessible anytime!
Learn up-to-date leading practices in palliative care.
Discover team-based approaches for physical and psychosocial challenges.
Practice with case studies covering cancer, renal disease, heart failure and COPD.
Learn to incorporate a person-centred and family-centred palliative care approach.
Join over 15,000 health care professionals on the de Souza Institute learning platform!

Note for mobile visitors: This particular course is designed to be best experienced on desktop/laptop browsers that support the latest web technologies, or tablet sized devices in landscape orientation

Try a Sample EPC Module!

Introduction to Pain Assessment and Management

Pain can be debilitating and prevent the patient and family from achieving goals that are important to them. Patients and families often fear uncontrolled pain the most of any symptom, however, most pain can be palliated, and patients can be relatively pain-free. In this introductory module, we will introduce you to the causes of pain, barriers to effective pain management, and a general approach to pain assessment and management that is applicable to all disciplines.

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EPC Course Series Authors:

Cathy Kiteley, APN, RN, MScN, CON(C), CHPCN(C)

Judy Simpson, RN, BN, MEd, CHPCN(C)

Paul Daeninck, MD, MSc, FRCPC

Susan Blacker, MSW, RSW

About the EPC Curriculum

EPC is the Canadian online adaptation of Education in Palliative and End-of-Life Care (EPEC™), an educational program designed by palliative care clinicians from the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. The curriculum was tailored to the Canadian context by EPEC-O Canada.

Emanuel, L.L., Ferris, F.D., von Gunten, C.F. and Von Roenn, J. (2005). Education in Palliative and End of Life Care – Oncology. The EPEC Project, Chicago. ISBN #0971418063.

Daeninck, P., Hanvey, L., Hauser, J., Librach, L., Preodor, M., Simpson, J. (2010). Education in Palliative and End of Life Care – Oncology- Canada. Canadian Partnership Against Cancer.

de Souza Institute updated the curriculum in 2017 and in 2021. This year, recognizing that many clinicians also take care of patients with other life-limiting illnesses, the institute broadened the course to cover three additional non-cancer illnesses: end-stage renal disease, congestive heart failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.