The Evolution and Dissemination of the Education in Palliative and End-of-Life Care Program

Abstract Background: Even with growing numbers of fellowship-trained palliative care providers, primary palliative care knowledge and skills are needed to meet the national demands for palliative care. The Education in Palliative and End-of-Life Care (EPEC) Program has been one model of training clinicians in primary palliative care skills. In our second 5 years of development and dissemination, we have focused on adapting EPEC to different specialties. Objective: Our aim was to describe the development of EPEC adaptations and document the dissemination of our curriculum. Methods: The study design was a survey of EPEC trainers and documentation of other dissemination efforts via literature and Internet searches. Our subjects were all EPEC trainers and end-learners of our curriculum. We measured dissemination and teaching efforts by our trainers and evidence of EPEC use via literature and EPEC's searches. Results: In its second 5 years of active development, teaching, and dissemination, we have created fiv...