UCC opens course in end-of-life care and ethics

A master's degree programme in end-of-life healthcare ethics will begin at University College Cork (UCC) this September. The deadline for applications to the multidisciplinary programme, being offered by the college of medicine and health at the university on a part-time basis over two years, is this Friday, May 2nd.

The course, described by UCC as a world first, is designed to enable students from diverse backgrounds, including health professionals, social workers, solicitors, hospital administrators, chaplains and journalists, to research and evaluate critically the ethical, professional, legal and philosophical underpinnings of end-of-life decisions and care in hospital and healthcare settings.

The course director, Dr Joan McCarthy, said Irish legislative and regulatory bodies were driving reform in relation to medical practices in end-of-life care, which was overdue. If the reforms envisaged in documents such as the National Consent Policy (2013) and the Assisted Decision Making Bill (2013) were to be realised, she said, there would have to be a cultural shift in healthcare organisations and practices as well as among the public.

“In end-of-life care, health professionals, patients and families must often make difficult decisions in tense, demanding, emotionally fraught and constrained circumstances.

"In this context, recent research carried out under the auspices of the Irish Hospice Foundation indicates that the general public in Ireland have little understanding of end-of-life treatment and care terminology, or of the processes of dying and death.

“They are also confused about the role of families in relation to receiving information and making decisions for incompetent patients. In addition, Irish health professionals are uneasy and unsure about patient autonomy rights and they can feel pressurised by family members into denying patients relevant information and carrying out treatments that they consider futile.”

Dr McCarthy said that while legal challenges in relation to assisted suicide and euthanasia might capture the public imagination, clarity and understanding were also needed in relation to more usual but still complex and contested decisions and interventions.

The Irish Hospice Foundation is offering two scholar ships that will cover half of the course fees over two years . The deadline for application is this Frida y. See http://iti.ms/S1fe8F