Implementação da disciplina de cuidados paliativos na graduação em Medicina da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN)

Abstract

Background: Epidemiological changes of diseases in the world and in Brazil result in the need of physicians able to attend patients with life-limiting illness through palliative actions. Objective: The creation of a discipline of Palliative Care (PC) in medical school of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). Methods: Based on international guidelines recommendations, relevant contents were defined and multi-professional education, communication and practical training were prized. During the curriculum planning, learning methods, workload, assessments and syllabus were defined. Fifteen places were available with a total workload of 45 hours divided into theoretical, practical training, evaluations and feedbacks. At the end of the semester, an electronic questionnaire was sent to students to evaluate the PC course. Results: The PC subject were taught in second semester of 2016, thirty students pre registered in the optional component and 15 attended. Ten theoretical classes, 6 practical meetings and 3 assessments were provided. The syllabus were well evaluated and most praised educational strategies were lectures, TBL, Role-play and Case Study. The performance of the students was satisfactory and similar between different years students. Conclusion: The planning and implementation of the PC component were well accomplished given the positive evaluation of the course and satisfactory student performance. The lack of qualified teachers and the overload of undergraduate medical curriculum are still the major challenge to continue with PC curriculum.