Palliative Care

Code:

OPT5_20

Acronym:

CPL

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Medicine

Instance: 2024/2025 - 2S (of 03-03-2025 to 13-06-2025)

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Medical Teaching
Course/CS Responsible:	Integrated Masters Degree in Medicine

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MIM	17	Official Study Plan	5	-	3	30	81

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

Acquisition of Palliative Care knowledge in chronic oncological and non-oncological patients.

Learning outcomes and competences

• To know the philosophy and define the principles of palliative care.
• To state the general principles of symptoms control and use symptoms scales.
• To compare the symptomatic complexity between oncological and non-oncological patients. To understand the difficulties of establishing prognostic in non-malignant disease, and recognize the applicability of the palliative care methodology in chronic non- malignant disease.
• To recognize the communication barriers in terminally ill patient and their families and acquire skills to facilitate verbal and non-verbal communication, especially bad news.
• To recognize the pain main mechanisms; to evaluate and treat the pain according to the WHO pain scale.
• To identify and treat major respiratory symptoms (dyspnoea, cough, hemoptysis and suffocation) in chronic respiratory disease, heart failure and cancer.
• To recognize early major neuropsychological symptoms (delirium, confusion, insomnia, anxiety and depression), identifying their risk factors and understanding their therapeutic approach.
• To identify and treat major gastrointestinal disorders (nausea, vomiting, constipation, intestinal occlusion, cachexia and anorexia). To know how to apply oral care in terminally ill patients
• To know the nutrition and hydration principles in terminally ill patients including indications of enteric tubes and subcutaneous therapy (hypodermoclisis). Know which drugs can be used subcutaneously.
• To know the spiritual and religious needs of the patients.
• To recognize the terminal phase and know how to redefine the therapeutic objectives. 
• To know the stages of grief and the basic rules to help grieving people, including health professionals.
• To recognize the social consequences of severe illness and how to activate early support mechanisms.
• To know palliative care in pediatrics patients.
• Understand ethical principles in chronic disease and at the end of life.

Working method

Presencial

Pre-requirements (prior knowledge) and co-requirements (common knowledge)

Program

Introduction to palliative care
Pain
Communication
Digestive symptoms
Respiratory symptoms
Cardiac insufficiency
Renal insufficiency
Nutrition; Subcutaneous therapy; Oral Care Grief; Family support; Family conference 
Spirituality and palliative care
Last hours/days of life
Palliative care in geriatric patients
Palliative care in Pediatrics
Ethical isssues

Mandatory literature

Elga Freire et al; Manual de Cuidados Paliativos do CHP, A fornecer no inicio das aulas, 2016

Complementary Bibliography

António Barbosa, Paulo Reis Pina, Filipa Tavares, Isabel G. Neto; Manual de Cuidados Paliativos , Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa, 2016
Ferraz Gonçalves; Controlo de sintomas no cancro avançado., Coisas e Letras, 2013
Kasper Dennis et al ; Harrison's Principles if Internal Medicine, Kasper, Fauci, Hauser, Longo, Jameson and Loscalzo, 2016

Teaching methods and learning activities

Oral expository method
Case study
Roll playing - communication of bad news
Workshop - discussion of clinical cases in groups

 

Evaluation Type

Evaluation with final exam

Assessment Components

Designation	Weight (%)
Teste	90,00
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	10,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

Designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	51,00
Frequência das aulas	30,00
Total:	81,00

Eligibility for exams

• Presence in, at least, 75% of the classes.

Calculation formula of final grade

The approval implies obtaining a grade of 9.5 or higher in the final test (multiple choise)

Internship work/project

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

Written test

Classification improvement

Oral test.