Palliative Care Education and Research Conference

We support the advancement of palliative care knowledge through the Palliative Care Education and Research Conference. Learn about palliative care needs and enhance your knowledge of the practical aspects of palliative and end-of-life care. Explore current trends, issues and research with our invited guest experts and your colleagues.

Attend and get involved in discussions and learnings across a range of topics, during keynote presentations and breakout sessions.

About the conference

The annual Palliative Care Education and Research Conference, first held in 1989, brings together healthcare providers, researchers, community leaders and other palliative care experts to:

• increase awareness of palliative care needs in our community
• increase knowledge of the mechanisms of physical, emotional, spiritual and social distress
• provide better understanding of ways to control symptoms of life-limiting disease
• improve understanding of patient- and family-centred care
• improve understanding and support for the interprofessional approach
• increase awareness of compassionate values and moral decision-making in palliative care
• create a supportive environment for staff wellness
• provide networking opportunities
• provide a forum for sharing new research findings, both in progress and completed

Increasing your understanding of a person’s unique journey contributes to a person and family-centred approach to care. This allows you to better support patients and their families throughout their illness trajectory. Improving personalization and honouring people where they are at enhances overall quality of care and life, decreases suffering and may event extend survival.

Caring for people and their communities is at the heart of what we do. Through trust, knowledge, communication, compassionate care and awareness of social, cultural and individual factors, health care providers can facilitate an environment that respects, responds, values and embraces diversity and individual preferences. Caregiver awareness and understanding of various social determinants of health (including race, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity and other factors affecting the person) will both impact and influence patient-provider interactions, clinical decision making and individual interpretations of life, death, dying and bereavement.