Relieve your patient's experience and suffering after receiving a terminal diagnosis"

Accompanying patients and their families throughout the cancer process reaches its climax when they receive a terminal diagnosis. Therefore, the physician must demonstrate the technical, emotional and human capacity to help the bereaved cope with this difficult moment.

As a result, healthcare professionals should be aware of the palliative care a patient receives at the end of life, thus providing useful information to help alleviate the experience and suffering. For this reason, this Postgraduate Diploma in Emotional Intervention at the End of Life and Grief in Oncological Psychology will help students to learn about the conflicts that arise due to the beliefs and values between the medical team and the patient's family when facing death.

In addition, they will also be trained to help the patient's family members to accept the impending loss before it occurs, ensuring a healthy mourning and guidance to find the meaning of life after having experienced the process of cancer. It is important for the student to understand that this is accompanied by a series of physical and emotional symptoms that, if left untreated, will lead to pathological grief, requiring pharmacological treatment to counteract the feeling of discomfort.

Furthermore, there will be a debate focused on the ethical aspects of medicine in dealing with terminal cancer patients. Here, the need should focus on guaranteeing the values and principles of the patient without forgetting that  they are an individual being with beliefs and aspirations. For this reason, there are certain laws that help guarantee their wishes in the face of alternative care, such as assisted suicide or euthanasia. 

End-of-life care helps the patient and their family in the transition towards healthy and necessary bereavement”

This postgraduate diploma in ##TITULO## contains the most complete and up-to-date educational program on the market. The most important features are:

• Practical cases presented by experts in Psycho-Oncology 
• The graphic, schematic, and eminently practical contents with which they are created, provide scientific and practical information on the disciplines that are essential for professional practice  
• Practical exercises where self-assessment can be used to improve learning  
• Special emphasis on innovative methodologies for psychological intervention with cancer patients   
• Theoretical lessons, questions to the expert, debate forums on controversial topics, and individual reflection assignments  
• Content that is accessible from any fixed or portable device with an Internet connection 

Take preventive actions to care for your cancer patient's family members" 

The program’s teaching staff includes professionals from the sector who contribute their work experience to this training program, as well as renowned specialists from leading societies and prestigious universities.

The multimedia content, developed with the latest educational technology, will provide the professional with situated and contextual learning, i.e., a simulated environment that will provide immersive training programmed to train in real situations.

This program is designed around Problem Based Learning, whereby the professional must try to solve the different professional practice situations that arise during the academic year. For this purpose, the student will be assisted by an innovative interactive video system created by renowned and experienced experts.

Spiritual beliefs are a fundamental pillar when facing death"

Be prepared to face the moral questions of assisted suicide"

With this program, the student will be fully capable of meeting the needs of their patients with a confirmed diagnosis. Thus, they will be able to care for them in their final moments, attend to their family's grief and ultimately preserve their own emotions by taking care not to over-involve themselves in the case. Likewise, they will be able to argue for the use of palliative care following an ethical criterion that is in tune with the patient's wishes.   

Express yourself with empathy to support your patients in their last few months of life”     

General Objectives

• Gain in-depth knowledge of the area of study and development of the profession 
• Know the application of psychology in the nursing care for cancer 
• Define the functions of a psycho-oncology unit and the role of the psycho-oncologist in the health care setting 
• Gain in-depth knowledge of the different therapeutic options in the psychological treatment of cancer 
• Contribute to the control of anemic alterations through appropriate psychological strategies 
• Know how to assess and intervene in adaptive and maladaptive emotions and behaviors 
• Understand the influence of the psychological aspects of each type of tumor and to contribute to their control by means of psychological strategies 
• Know how to assess and intervene in adaptive and maladaptive emotions and behaviors of the different oncologic processes 
• Know how to differentiate between adaptive and maladaptive emotions and behaviors at the end of life 
• Explore and apply strategies for emotional self-regulation 
• Know, evaluate, diagnose and intervene in the most prevalent psychological problems in palliative care 
• Explore personal, social and cultural beliefs and values of the family in relation to illness and death 
• Prepare for the loss 
• Detect psychological reactions in the different phases of grief 
• Provide appropriate individual and family bereavement support 
• Prevention and early identification of pathological grief 
• Gain in-depth knowledge of the basics and acquire basic communication skills 
• Understand in depth the theoretical bases of the professional-patient relationship 
• Be able to deliver bad news and answer difficult questions 
• Elaborate an initial assessment (detailed clinical history) and analysis of the social and spiritual emotional impact on the patient and their family 
• Know how to apply the instruments for the assessment of the patient and the family, useful and appropriate for each symptom and stage of the disease 
• Know in depth the conceptual bases, the methodology, the systematics and the procedures related to research in psycho-oncology 
• Search and select information: electronic databases, websites, libraries, magazines, texts, etc
• Apply bioethical principles to daily clinical practice with special emphasis on the most complex and specific situations 
• Deepen understanding in the conceptual and practical bases of ethics applied to the oncological process 
• Analyze in a scientific, rigorous and systematic way, ethical problems from an interdisciplinary perspective 
• Deepen understanding of the methodology of bioethics, rational and interdisciplinary, and know how to apply it to concrete or general situations 

Specific Objectives

Module 1. Protocols for Emotional Intervention at the End of Life    

• Perform preventive care actions for the family according to the stages of the disease 
• Address conflicts that may arise as a result of different socio-cultural beliefs and values between the team and the patient-family binomial 
• Recognize and respond to spiritual distress and know how to refer the patient to the appropriate professional 
• Develop appropriate assessments of the overall importance of the patient's spiritual beliefs and religious practices 
• Manage the attitudes and responses of patients, caregivers and professionals derived from the professional-patient relationship 
• Know how to intervene in particularly complex family situations 
• Be able to work in cooperative groups and multi-professional teams 

Module 2. Grief Management   

• Before death, prevent the onset of complicated grief prior to death as much as possible 
• After the death, continue to prevent the onset of complicated grief through emotional support, providing the tools that help the person to say goodbye to their loved one 
• Provide guidance in carrying out bereavement tasks 
• Develop the capacity for empathy, listening and compassion that allows us to be in tune with the patient's pain, without over-involvement and, at the same time, create a sufficiently strong therapeutic bond in the face of difficulties that may arise in the process  

Module 3. Ethical Aspects in Psycho-Oncology and Psychology of Palliative Care  

• Analyze ethical dilemmas in depth and from an interdisciplinary perspective 
• Identify bioethical problems in the conduct of professionals, in health care activities or in biomedical research 
• Argue decisions in the biomedical field with well-founded ethical value judgments 
• Develop expressive and communicative skills on bioethical issues in order to be able to interact in an ethics committee environment 

Tune in to the patient's pain to manage their negative attitudes at the end of life"