Identifying patients with palliative care needs: training healthcare professionals in South India

OBJECTIVE: This study describes and evaluates a comprehensive training programme to improve identification of patients for palliative care (PC) using the Supportive and PC Indicators Tool - Low Income Settings (SPICT-LIS). METHODS: The 2-day (3 hours each) training was for healthcare professionals (HCPs) working in a family medicine service unit, and it consisted primarily of didactic sessions on early identification of patients with PC needs using SPICT-LIS, case-based learning on its application, familiarisation with general PC principles and ongoing mentorship. The training was evaluated using structured questionnaires before and after the training programme. RESULTS: 58 HCPs were trained. The mean age was 35.55 years (SD=9.08), and the mean years of work in family medicine was 7.51 years. Before the training, only 33% were familiar with the SPICT-LIS, and 66% were confident in identifying patients with PC needs, which improved to 100% and 97% post-training, respectively. After the training, all participants agreed that using the SPICT-LIS in clinical practice is feasible. CONCLUSIONS: Training HCPs in the family medicine setting to use SPICT-LIS is useful and can improve their confidence in the early identification of patients with PC needs. HCPs found SPICT-LIS a feasible tool for use in clinical practice.