Perinatal and neonatal palliative care online course

PatchSA members are eligible for a 50% discount on the full price of the course until the end of January 2024.

Perinatal palliative care requires timely decision-making, planning and a focus on improving quality of life for the baby and family members through a continuum of care from diagnosis, through death and into the bereavement period. Our self-directed, online learning course is CPD accredited with 8 CEUs (4 Ethics and 4 General) by the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa (CMSA) and provides interesting and interactive instruction on how to enhance and improve your practice and delivery of perinatal palliative care.

This virtual certificate course is relevant for all members of the multidisciplinary team, including doctors, nurses, midwives, sonographers, social workers and counsellors caring for mothers and family members when a baby has been diagnosed with a life-limiting illness before or shortly after birth.

Course review

“Overall, it’s a fantastic course on an essential and delicate topic. I really enjoyed learning from it, and it is presented so beautifully. I appreciated the inclusion of genetic counselling and found the section on debriefing and self-care so important. The course was structured and presented well, and it is clear that it was thought through and carefully curated. Well done on a fantastic course!”

Sinead Cameron-Mackintosh
Genetic Counsellor

To claim your 50% discount as a PatchSA member, please email Sue at info@patchsa.org

Additional courses on the Patch Academy website

We offer 13 stand-alone courses on our Patch Academy virtual learning platform. All of our courses are CPD accredited by the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa with General and Ethics points.

Below is a list of available courses. The first 2 courses are completely FREE to take, and the remainder range from between R250 – R550 per course.

  1. Introducing Children’s Palliative Care (FREE)
  2. Supporting Grieving Children (FREE)
  3. Communication in Children’s Palliative Care
  4. Assessing and Managing Children’s Pain
  5. Teamwork, Managing Conflict and Self-Care
  6. Cultural Competency and Spiritual Care
  7. Psychosocial Support in Children’s Palliative Care
  8. Loss, Grief and Bereavement in Children’s Palliative Care
  9. Ethics and Decision Making in Children’s Palliative Care
  10. Holistic Assessment and Palliative Care Planning
  11. Symptom Management in Children’s Palliative Care
  12. End-of-Life Care for Children
  13. Perinatal and Neonatal Palliative Care

Course reviews

Read some reflections from people who have completed courses on our site.

  • I really enjoyed the course. It is easy to learn and understand. It caters for all different types of learning styles.
  • It is eye opening to see how few children receive palliative care. It also showed me that certain disciplines and clinics should have access to an interdisciplinary team for all patients. No medical doctor can be a good doctor without understanding and practicing palliative care.
  • Loved the interactive approach and illustrations used as examples.
  • It was an outstanding module through which I gained a deep understanding of the vital role that spiritual care plays in the lives of children facing lifelong or life-threatening illnesses. This module also emphasized the importance of including a spiritual leader in the daily interactions with children of all age groups.
  • Through the ethics and decision making in children’s palliative care course I have learnt that sometimes there will be difficult times where I will be needed to tell the truth no matter how difficult it is. I have also learnt that it is very important to make a good decision that will include everyone who is involved in a life of a child or patient considering their feelings. The healthcare worker has to work with the child’s family and put the child at the center in making tough decisions.
  • This course is very vital to all health professionals and should be compulsory in the curriculum of nurses, doctors and social workers, as it gives one communication skills that we all need so badly, and it made me think about how my communication was affecting children and their family members.

To learn more and to register for any of the above courses, please click on the button below.