Background Aotearoa New Zealand has an ageing population with the number of patient deaths requiring palliative care projected to increase by 51% to 2038 (Ministry of Health, 2017). As a service available to patients and families out-of-hours in the community, palliative and end-of-life care is an increasingly important component of paramedic practice. Paramedics often support patients at times of transition or crisis and their role requires understanding patients’ goals of care, supporting family and managing symptoms across care settings (Juhrmann et al., 2022.)

Objectives Among paramedics there is a desire for further training in palliative and end-of-life care (Munro et al., 2023). The recognition of this transformation in paramedic practice together with the increasing need for palliative care, has led to the development of a new national paramedicine palliative and end-of-life care curriculum (PEOLC) in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Methods A working group, including representation from all paramedicine tertiary training institutions together with primary and specialist palliative care practitioners, met over a two year period. An iterative process with consultation led to the construction of the national PEOLC paramedicine curriculum.

Discussion Paramedics are increasingly central to the delivery of primary palliative care. However, confidence in providing end-of-life care is lowest in paramedics of less than three years’ experience with further education required to support confidence and optimise patient care (Kirk et al., 2017). Developing a shared curricula to embed and standardise palliative care education for undergraduate and extended care paramedics will ensure that our paramedic workforce is enabled to support the growing palliative care needs of our communities.

Summary The new national curriculum will be presented together with learnings from the development process and how this can be adapted for working with other health practitioner groups.

References

1. Ministry of Health. (2017). Review of adult palliative care services in New Zealand. https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/assets/Publications/Palliative/review-adult-palliative-care-services-nz-mar17.pdf

2. Juhrmann M, Vandersman P, Butow P, Clayton J. Paramedics delivering palliative and end-of-life care in community-based settings: a systematic integrative review with thematic analysis. Palliative Medicine, 2022; 36(3), 405 – 421

3. Munro A, Grundy K, Davis S. Aotearoa New Zealand emergency ambulance services and the provision of end-of-life care: a short survey. New Zealand Medical Journal, 2023; 136(1574), 15–23

4. Kirk A, Crompton P, Knighting K, Kirton J, Jack B. Paramedics and their role in end-of-life care: perceptions and confidence. Journal of Paramedic Practice, 2017; 9(2), 71–79