The First-level short specialisation degree in Paediatric Pain and Palliative Care prepares professionals who care for newborns/children/adolescents with chronic or terminal incurable illnesses to acquire specific skills in pain management and palliative care in different care settings.
Pain is in fact a transversal symptom, present in many pathological conditions, always a source of anxiety and fear for the child and parents. Pain management requires specific skills and it is known that experiences of acute and chronic pain are common in infants, children and adolescents. In particular, chronic pain is a significant problem as it is estimated that in 10% of cases it is difficult to manage and therefore requires a specialist and interdisciplinary approach.
The area of CPP is aimed at children with incurable illnesses who present complex needs, both on a clinical and psycho-emotional, spiritual, social and ethical level. The healthcare approach must include specialist skills in the analysis of needs and their response. The care model must guarantee continuity of care and respond to the global problems of the child and family, with the aim of achieving, together with the operators who make up the care network (hospital, territory, community and family), the best possible quality of life.
The training activities of the First-level short specialisation degree in Pediatric Pain and Palliative Care are provided in collaboration with the Universities of Padua, Trieste, the Vanvitelli University of Naples and the University of Milan-Bicocca. We favor lessons with active classroom discussions on clinical cases, group work, workshops, role playing and internships. The internship period can be chosen among the main CPP specialist centers in Italy, in particular:
- Specialist CPP Center and the Pediatric Hospice of the University Hospital of Padua,
- CPP Center of the IRCCS Mother and Child Burlo Garofolo of Trieste,
- Pediatric Hospice Casa Sollievo Bimbi Vidas in Milan
- Regional reference center for pain therapy, hospice and pediatric palliative care at Pausilipon Hospital in Naples.
The main training contents are:
- Pain in pediatric and neonatal settings: epidemiology, etiopathogenesis of the symptom;
- Pain: evaluation, measurement, therapy;
- The foundations of pediatric palliative care;
- Working as a team;
- The communication of bad news;
- Bioethics and biolaw in palliative care
- Pediatric palliative care: the care model and current legislation;
- Taking care of the patient with life limiting and life threatening pathologies: management of care needs;
- Taking charge of the family: management of educational, social and psychological needs.
The First-level short specialisation degree in Paediatric Pain and Palliative Care prepares professional healthcare, social, rehabilitation, psychological and educational figures that deal with children affected by incurable diseases, in the different care settings.
At the end of the First-level short specialisation degree, attendees acquire competencies in the field of:
- paediatric algology;
- diagnosis of the different types of pain, pain assessment in the different paediatric ages and clinical situations;
- history, principles and objectives of paediatric palliative care;
- onco- and non-oncological pathologies, complexity and terminality in the paediatric field;
- problem-based approach: defining of the needs to organize care responses in the different settings and in the different phases of the disease history;
- work in a medical team;
- strategies to communicate bad news to children, parents, extended family and friends and/or school network;
- care network organization;
- child management in take-over phases, from notification to grief management.
The First-level short specialisation degree in Paediatric Pain and Palliative Care provides a training path structured according to six modules.
Module 1: Pain in paediatric and neonatal sector
Epidemiology and pathogenesis of pain.
Module 2: Pain management
Measurement, assessment and treatment of pain.
Module 3: Fundamentals of paediatric palliative care
History, philosophical and ethical principles and legal aspects that describe paediatric palliative care in Italy.
Approaching children and families with incurable and terminal disease.
Module 4: Work in a medical team
Communicating bad news; multidisciplinary approach.
Module 5: Taking over patients and families
Take-over phases, from notification to grief management.
Module 6: From theory to practice
Analysis and discussion of clinical cases under supervision.
The general ranking of merit for the academic year 2024/25 will be published on the Italian page of this First-level short specialisation degree according to the timing provided in the Call.
Information
FAQ
Educational modules are organized with a periodicity of one week of training every 60 days, for 6 weeks.
The lessons will be held in person in the University classrooms of Padua and the Department of Paediatrics of Padua.
The traineeship can be carried out in the four consortium member Universities, and/or in affiliated training structures.