Public Palliative Care Education: Experiences with Last Aid Courses for adults and children including Online Last Aid Courses during the COVID-19 pandemic

1. Background and Goals
A major challenge for public palliative care is to support all people who want to die at home. Last Aid Courses (LAC) have been started in 2015 to educate citizens and to empower them to participate in end-of-life care. The main goals of the International Last Aid project were to establish an International Last Aid working group and to provide and evaluate public palliative care education for citizens.

2. Methods
Between 2017 and 2019 an International Last Aid working group with representatives from different countries and national organisations from e.g. palliative care, health-services, and the church as cooperation partners has been established. The curriculum and contents of the International Last Aid course are revised every other year by the International Last Aid working group. Scientific evaluation of LAC is coordinated by the international Last Aid Research Group Europe (LARGE) that was founded in September 2019. The experiences from he implementation process and the findings from the scientific evaluation will be summarised and presented during the Zoominar.

3. Results and Conclusion
Work on LAC has been started in 17 countries as Denmark, Germany, Slovenia, Lithuania, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Brasil, etc. The overall results show that the LAC is feasible and very well accepted in many different countries, cultures and groups. It has been used for adults, children and groups as hospital employees and policemen. LAC are even possible as online course format that was tested during the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientific work on cultural issues and the effects of Last aid Courses are ongoing in a number of countries.
In conclusion Last Aid Courses are feasible and well accepted by citizens in different countries. The courses can contribute to a public debate on death, dying and palliative care and may contribute to empower citizens to provide end-of-life care.

Keywords: Palliative care, public palliative care education, end-of-life care, home death, compassionate communities, Last Aid Course

Biography: Dr. med. Georg Bollig, PhD, MAS, DEAA is a physician and researcher. He is a specialist in anaesthesiology, emergency medicine and palliative medicine with scientific work in various fields. He works as consultant in palliative medicine at the Medical Center Sønderjylland in Sønderborg, South Jutland Hospital, Denmark. Georg is a clinical associate professor in palliative care at the University of Southern Denmark. He invented Last Aid Courses and is the leader of Last Aid International and the international Last Aid working group. At present he is working on research projects about ethics, telemedicine and the effects of Last Aid Courses.

The presented research has been performed without external funding.

Presenting author details that will be used for Certificates and Id cards
Dr. Georg Bollig, PhD, MAS, DEAA; Clin. Assoc. Prof. in Palliative Care
Palliative Care Team, Medical Department Sønderborg/Tønder, South Jutland Hospital, Sønderborg, Denmark
b Palliative Care research group, Medical Research Unit, Institute of Regional Health Research, University of Southern Denmark
c Last Aid International, Schleswig, Germany
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