The inaugural Francophone palliative care course was held earlier this year in Cameroon and was attended by 14 students from Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Senegal. The class consisted of doctors, nurses, nursing assistants and social workers.

The course, based on a palliative care course already offered by Hospice Africa Uganda, was  devised in collaboration between Hospice Africa Uganda, Hospice Africa France, L’Alliance Mondiale Contre le Cancer (AMCC) and CBC. 

The course combined three weeks of lectures with two weeks of practical placements, covering a range of palliative care topics and culminating with a ‘Training of Trainers’ week. The students are now in the process of setting up a Francophone palliative care network to provide support and resources for francophone palliative care workers and several are working to develop their own palliative care services. 

For more details, see the full article by Dr Lou Millington on the African edition of ehospice.