title: Health care professionals' perceptions towards lifelong learning in palliative care for general practitioners: a focus group study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is a growing need for palliative care. The majority of palliative patients prefer their general practitioner (GP) to organize their palliative home care. General practitioners need a range of competences to perform this task. However, there has been no general description so far of how GPs keep these competences up-to-date. The present study explores current experiences, views and preferences towards training and education in palliative care among GPs, palliative home-care professionals and professionals from organizations who provide training and education.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five focus groups were brought together in Belgium, with a total of 29 participants, including members of the three categories mentioned above. They were analysed using a constant comparison method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The analysis revealed that undergraduate education and continuing medical education (CME) while in practice, is insufficient to prepare GPs for their palliative work. Workplace learning (WPL) through collaboration with specialized palliative home-care nurses seems to be a valuable alternative.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The effectiveness of undergraduate education might be enhanced by adding practical experience. Providers of continuing medical education should look to organize interactive, practice-based and interprofessional sessions. Therefore, teachers need to be trained to run small group discussions. In order to optimize workplace learning, health care professionals should be trained to monitor each other's practice and to provide effective feedback. Further research is needed to clarify which aspects of interprofessional teamwork (e.g. professional hierarchy, agreements on tasks and responsibilities) influence the effectiveness of workplace learning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care, Ghent University, UZ-6 K3, De Pintelaan 185, 9000 Gent, Belgium. peter.pype@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pype
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Symons
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wens
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Van den Eynden
authors.forename: Ann
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stes
authors.forename: Myriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Deveugele
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D058006:General Practice / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010166:Palliative Care