At the end of 2020, the Hospice Care Professionals Association (HCPA) and the Federal Scientific and Practical Center for Palliative Medical Care of Sechenov University with the support of the Global Palliative Care Program of Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe and the assistance of the American Eurasian Cancer Alliance (AECA) and the World Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) conducted a large-scale educational online project for palliative care teachers of medical universities of Russia.

The course ТоТ (Training/teaching of Teachers) was attended by 22 employees of departments, where palliative care is being taught, from 9 medical educational institutions of different cities - St. Petersburg, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Nizhny Novgorod, Saransk, Kazan, Yaroslavl, Ryazan, Moscow take place.

The course was lectured by international and Russian experts and teachers, including Eric Krakauer (Harvard Medical School), Stephen Connor (WHPCA), Tom Smith (Johns Hopkins University), Diana Nevzorova (HCPA). The program covered various aspects of providing palliative care and the specifics of teaching this discipline. Particular attention was paid to the exchange of experience, discussions and interaction of participants in small groups. The course also included a detailed survey of the participants’ teaching experience, beliefs, and preferences, exploring their own “strong” and “weak” topics and difficulties in teaching palliative care.

The experience of the first ToT course, feedback from participants and questionnaires provided a factual basis for improving the course and tailoring it to the profile of the Russian PC teacher in order to meet best his or her needs, interests, knowledge gaps and the specifics of teaching at various medical universities in the country.

The importance of quality teaching for such a multifaceted discipline as palliative care, especially for the teachers themselves, is difficult to overestimate. This defines the importance of the project for the global goal of improving the quality and volume of teaching PC in the Russian Federation, which is especially relevant given its active development and the growing need for professional staff.

The organisers of the course decided to conduct the course annually.