Evaluation of “Palliative care workshop for physicians engaged in clinical practice for cancer treatment held in Kyoto”

ABSTRACT

In Kyoto, we held the first “Palliative care workshop for physicians engaged in clinical practice for cancer treatment” in Japan on June 7-8, 2008 under the directive of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. There were 163 participants in the workshop, including 56 physicians and 107 voluntarily participating healthcare professionals (77 nurses, 23 pharmacists and 7 other medical professionals). We analyzed the results of tests consisting of 25 questions classified into 7 categories based on their contents. Tests were administered before and after the workshop (pre-test and post-test), and the educational effects of our conference were evaluated by examining changes in test scores. Participants other than physicians, nurses and pharmacists were excluded from analysis of the test scores because comprehensive medical knowledge was required to solve the questions. The mean rates of correct answers on pre- and post-test were 87.9% for physicians (total 78.9%) and 94.6% for physicians (total 89.1%), respectively. The scores were markedly increased after the workshop, showing practical significance of our attempt. However, the percentage of correct answers regarding psychological symptoms was lowest for physicians as well as for other healthcare professionals on both pre- and post-test. These findings strongly suggest that the workshops produced a sufficient educational effect, but improvement in individual training systems is considered necessary, especially in fields related to psychological manifestations. Palliat Care Res 2010; 5(2) 152-161