Hello! Allow me to introduce myself; my name is Hannah Ikong and in March I joined the Palliative care Education and Research Consortium (PcERC) as an Education Programming Consultant. I have experience in both education and administration in Uganda, the UK, and the USA, and I am delighted to provide support to our most recent education programmes. This year has been marked by growth in the educational programmes; namely, an expansion of our medical student resources (i.e., the MMed Family Medicine Expert Lectures) and a rebirth of the Palliative Care Fellowship Programme. 

The MMed Family Medicine Expert Lectures are a response to the learning needs of the Makerere University family medicine (general practitioner) students. Postgraduate students often have clinical instructional rotations in different specialities, including palliative care, at the end of their course. The most recent rotation during March 2022 spurred us to create an expert lecture series addressing the primary medicine approach to palliative care. Through the partnership of palliative care specialists around the globe, engaging 30-minute lectures were recorded, designed for group discussions and immediate application in clinical rounds. Topics surrounding complete healthcare worker participation and hospital-specific set up of palliative care and perspectives on palliative care in global, rural, and fragile settings were covered. The students were inspired to incorporate palliative care in their own daily practice. The expert lectures are now being organised and saved for future family medicine students on a private YouTube channel (watch our playlists here). 

We are also in the thick of building a Palliative Care Fellowship Programme, which will be the first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Our plan is to start the Fellowship in Uganda and later branch to other countries under the ambit of the East, Central and Southern Africa College of Physicians (ECSACOP). We are delighted to have partnerships to support the Fellowship through Cairdeas IPCT, members of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and London and members of the Association for Palliative Medicine, UK. The Fellowship planning has been a process with monthly steering group meetings since March 2022 of both Ugandan and UK palliative care experts, while we have benchmarked and wrote a curriculum, structured a proposal, submitted the work for senior review, and investigated routes of accreditation. We must note and thank the ongoing collaboration of several palliative care specialists in and outside Uganda, led by Dr Mhoira Leng, Dr Elizabeth (Liz) Namukaya, and Dr Kate Howorth (six-month UK volunteer with PcERC).

As we reflect on both the tasks accomplished and remaining, one word comes to mind: collaboration. Palliative care specialists across the globe have provided their expertise and time to create the MMed Family Medicine Expert Lectures, and others are continuing to support in the Fellowship’s Programme creation and approval. We also have excellent support for the Department of Medicine and Family Medicine at Makerere. We are so grateful for the teamwork and passion being invested in palliative care education. We look forward to outcomes of improved clinical skills and research, and improved access to palliative care in communities around Uganda and beyond. We also invite further collaboration from those interested in palliative care education programming; for enquiries, please contact me, Hannah Ikong at hikong256@gmail.com.