There are 2 palliative care training centres in Romania. The Princess Diana Hospice Education Centre, Brasov, opened in 1997, and the Palliative Care Resource Centre in Bucharest, opened in 2004. These two centres aim to expand the education programme across the country. The Princess Diana Study Centre for Palliative Care was founded by Hospice Casa Sperantei. It is the national coordinator of post-graduation education programmes in palliative care for doctors, nurses, and volunteers. The centre is accredited as the National Study and Resource Center for Palliative Care by the Romanian Health Ministry, and receives funding from PHARE, the British National Lottery, and the SOROS Foundation. Daniela Mosoiu describes the training centre in Brasov:

‘At the beginning it was a training centre for Brasov, and after we have finished the building of it we received a grant, an EU grant to develop the curricula and that the curricula was developed in partnership with Greenwich University, and it was quite hard work, it took two years to develop all the courses, and then we got also approval from the Ministry of Health and that was the first time maybe when it became more, or at least, in somehow it came in the eyes of the authorities and received a kind of approval from the national authorities.’³⁹

In the 2005 EAPC Eurobarometer Survey Daniela Mosoiu reports that:

‘Since 2000, palliative care has been recognised as a medical subspecialty by an order of the Ministry of Health. Training consists of a 12 week course (8 weeks theory and 4 weeks clinical practice). 136 physicians with palliative care sub-specialisation and 697 nurses have undertaken the advanced training course in palliative care, and over 2000 health professionals have undertaken introductory palliative care courses of 1-2 weeks duration. Training for social workers in palliative care is provided at the training centre in Hospice Casa Sperantei, however training for occupational therapists in general healthcare is limited in Romania.’⁴⁰

In 2000, the Hospice Casa Sperantei education centre became the Regional Training Centre for South-Eastern Europe, and an agreement was reached between the Health Ministry, the Romanian Nursing Association, the Postgraduate Training Center for Nurses and the Study Center for Palliative Care to introduce palliative care into the curricula of nursing colleges.⁴¹

Four Romanian universities are participating in a training program to introduce palliative care into the curricula for medical and nursing undergraduates. In 2004, a National Commission for Palliative Care was appointed in the Ministry of Health and a draft regulation concerning palliative care services was produced. However, in 2005 the Commission was not budgeted so its role has become questionable. In April 2005, the publication of the Council of Europe report on palliative care was translated and officially launched⁴². In May, 2006, a delegation of palliative care doctors from Romania visited Lancaster University for a week, as part of the Leonardo da Vinci Community Project. Despite these events, there is little public awareness about palliative care, and although since 2002 there has been considerable development of services, palliative care remains a low priority financially in Romania’s health service.⁴³