Advance Care Planning Australia (ACPA) has developed a standardised, evidence-based Advance Care Planning Education Capability Framework to support the teaching of health professionals in Australian universities.
It is a flexible and adaptable resource that can be easily incorporated into existing curricula to supplement the teaching of subjects covering legal and ethical practice in healthcare, palliative care approach, emergency care, care planning, care of the older person, cancer care and more.
How is Advance Care Planning (ACP) relevant to healthcare practitioners?
Registered health practitioners in Australia have legal and ethical obligations to support advance care planning as defined by relevant legislation and health profession codes of conduct and practice standards.
All health professionals have a role in advance care planning and respecting their patients’ decision making autonomy.
A recent scoping study and feedback from our University stakeholders has informed us that there is a need for a standardised ACP education framework that can be easily integrated into existing curricula, which they tell us is increasingly crowded.
Many health professionals in the workforce report a lack of confidence with advance care planning. Typically they tell us that they did not receive any education in ACP as part of their training and that they would benefit from it.
What are the core elements of this teaching resource?
The framework and supporting educational resources are designed to enable teaching staff to self-select relevant ACP content covering:
o critical communication skills
o ethical considerations involved in ACP
o legal and professional obligations
How can the Advance Care Planning Education Capability Framework be accessed?
The framework can be found on the ACPA website with supplementary material and case studies to support teaching. ACPA welcomes feedback on this resource via acpa@austin.org.au
Advance Care Planning Australia is funded by the Australian Government.
