This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2016 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

PGP5018 - Palliative care

6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Postgraduate - Unit

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Faculty

Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Coordinator(s)

Ms Laura Dean

Quota applies

This unit is quota restricted. Selection is on a first-in, first enrolled basis. For more information please contact the faculty at http://monash.edu/pharm/future/contact/

Offered

Parkville

First semester 2016 (Off-campus)

Notes

For postgraduate coursework pharmacy discontinuation dates, please see http://www.pharm.monash.edu.au/students/pg-coursework/unit-discontinuation-dates.html

Synopsis

The unit will cover the clinical and non-clinical topics listed below, enabling appropriate pharmacist management of palliative care patients.

Clinical topics:

management of pain
management of symptoms other than pain
palliative care in malignant and non-malignant disease
prescribing in palliative care

Non-clinical topics:

palliative care principles
ethical issues
access to palliative care medications
introduction to the Australian palliative care system

Pharmacists completing this unit will acquire knowledge about current therapies used in symptom management with the aim of achieving the best possible quality of life for palliative care patients and their families.

Outcomes

At the completion of this unit students will be able to:

Describe the principles of palliative care.
Discuss the multi-disciplinary approach to palliative care within the Australian palliative care system.
Apply pharmacological and non-pharmacological pain management knowledge to their professional practice.
Recognise, monitor, and pharmacologically and non-pharmacologically manage common non-pain symptoms and treatment side-effects.
Have a working knowledge of how palliative cancer care medicines can be administered and accessed.
Apply the principles of prescribing and de-prescribing in palliative care.

Assessment

Contributions to case studies in online moderated discussion forums: 50%
Written assignment 1: 5%
Written assignment 2: 5%
Case study 1: 10%
Case study 2: 20% (hurdle)
Submission of a learning portfolio: 10% (hurdle)

Workload requirements

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities and independent study. The unit requires on average 10-12 hours of scheduled activities per week. Scheduled activities may include teacher directed learning, reading time, participation in tutorials or discussion groups, research and preparation for assignments.

Chief examiner(s)

Ms Laura Dean

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Pharmacy practice