World Health Organization 20, Avenue Appia

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What is palliative care? 
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carers’ responsibilities to patients/community participation in palliative care;
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productive interaction with the system; 
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knowing about the patient’s biomedical, psychosocial and spiritual status;
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knowing how to communicate to the patient in a supportive way;
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knowing the basics of nursing care; 
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knowing when and where to seek help for the patient and carer (including oneself); and
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grief and bereavement.
n
rudimentary training in palliative care principles and policies can be complemented by supervised 
practical experience working with PHC professionals in providing care 
(66,71).
To prepare the health care work force of the future, all medical students and nursing students should have 
a 30–40-hour basic course in palliative care in the final year of their training. Basic courses in palliative 
care should be made available as part of continuing education to clinicians already practising PHC. They 
should be given incentives to obtain this training, and a deadline could be set by which time all PHC 
providers should have completed the basic palliative care training.

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Integrating palliative care and symptom relief into primary health care
36
Task shifting
WHO has developed a series of global recommendations for task shifting of palliative care services for 
patients with HIV/AIDS 
(76). These principles may be useful in deciding which members of PHC teams can 
provide which palliative care services more generally (Table 3).
Table 3. PHC workers who can provide specific palliative care services
Medical 
doctor
Non-
physician 
clinician
Nurse
Community