Most palliative care teams provide specialist education; some ‘palliateurs’ teach in universities and medical organizations at the post-graduate level. Programmes currently operate in the cities of Rosario and Buenos Aires.

Full and part time training programmes emphasise the ‘hands on’ approach to palliative care. Specialist and multidisciplinary distance courses originate from Buenos Aires, some of them accredited by universities through the award of a diploma. Participants are required to have previous clinical experience. Physicians, nurses, social workers and psychologists are encouraged to join multi-professional teams, with small or newly-established teams receiving continuous support from the more developed education programmes.

As health professionals from Argentina and other South American countries participate in these programmes, such initiatives impact at both local and regional levels. Courses, symposia and workshops are held several times a year. Grants are scarce and students are usually self-funding - although some British organisations have recently supported students seeking training in Argentina. Undergraduate training in palliative medicine is unavailable.

The numbers of students undertaking basic and advanced courses at the Pallium Latinoamerica study centre are shown in Tables 3, 4 and 5 below.

Table 3
Number and origin of students attending the basic course at the Pallium Latinoamerica study centre, 1993-2001

Source: de Simone ¹⁶

Table 4
Breakdown by profession of students attending the basic course at the Pallium Latinoamerican study centre, 1993-2001

 Source: de Simone ¹⁰

Table 5
Number and origin of students attending the advanced course (uniprofessional + multiprofessional) at the Pallium Latinoamerica study centre, 1993-2001

Source: de Simone ¹⁰

The first library specialising in palliative care and psycho-oncology has been established by Pallium Latinoamerica. With over 170 books and palliative medicine journals in English and Spanish, it represents a valuable source of information for community and other health professionals.

Marta Junin describes training courses available for nurses interested in palliative care:

‘In nursing, we have got training opportunities through the Department of Capacitation of the Government of the city of Buenos Aires. They are free courses…everybody interested can attend. Approximately, five courses are organized during the year …for auxiliary and professional nurses. There is also post graduate training …and advanced courses are available at palliative care study centres. For undergraduate nursing students, we have got 25 teaching hours allocated within the nurses’ syllabus…’¹⁷

During these courses, nurses are taught about the principles and philosophy of palliative care, the use of morphine and other strong opioids, pain assessment and documentation and how to break bad news to patients and families.

With the aim of raising health professionals’ awareness and knowledge of palliative care, trained nurses and doctors undertake teaching activities at several public hospitals in Buenos Aires. Each palliative care programme also provides opportunities to interested health professionals for palliative care education. ⁴,¹²,¹⁴,²¹

Since July 2004, the AAMyCP has encouraged the development of research initiatives countrywide through the creation of a Cooperative National Group on Palliative Care Research (Grupo Nacional Cooperativo de Investigacion en Cuidados Paliativos). It aims at fostering the participation of palliative care professionals working in different regions of the country on different research projects.¹⁸