BVGH’s AAI Palliative Care Digital Training Program (English), which attracted 1,816 attendees from 34 African countries, concluded in November 2023. Upon popular demand and participant feedback, BVGH organized two workshops for AAI hospital partners to practice the communication strategies that they learned during the digital training. The workshops, which covered breaking bad news and communicating a cancer prognosis, began with a review of palliative care communication principles led by Dr. Frank Ferris, Executive Director of Palliative Medicine, Research and Education, OhioHealth. Attendees subsequently transitioned into small breakout groups, during which they participated in role-play scenarios depicting patient-clinician interactions and received feedback from their peers. BVGH coordinated the breakout group discussions which were facilitated by experts from Centre Hospitalier Public d’Hauteville, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia.
“I am happy I had the opportunity to participate in this workshop. I gained great insight from both the facilitators and the participants. I am eager to practice the lessons learnt and hope to have more of such opportunities in the future.”
– Motoh Nzoteu Irene Jasmine, General Practitioner at Cameroon Oncology Center