Educational innovation as a communication strategy in palliative care: A study protocol and preliminary results

INTRODUCTION: Society associates palliative care with "death" or "end of life", which cause them fear and anxiety. In Spain, the media worsens the misunderstanding by depicting a wrong picture of palliative care. Educational innovation for university students may serve as an alternative communication strategy. Care and Society is a university course designed by and for students from non-health degrees to help disseminate the palliative care message. The first year of the Teach-Inn Pal project aims to evaluate the effects of the course and to identify areas of improvement. OBJECTIVE: To present an evaluation to determine if the course can work as a campaign to refocus the public opinion on palliative care and share the preliminary results of the pilot study. METHODOLOGY: A prospective Participatory Action Research study. University students enrolled in the course (n = 29) are invited to test and redesign the palliative care message. Knowledge and empathy will be measured throughout the learning process. Afterwards, qualitative, thematic, inductive analysis of the course material will be carried out. This study is registered on the ISRCTN Registry under the name “Can a university course help communicate palliative care?” (Registration number: ISRCTN10236642). DISCUSSION: This study is part of a doctoral thesis. Education is used as a creative outlet, allowing rapid testing of multiple tools to create ambassadors of palliative care that may reframe the public opinion. CONCLUSION: The understanding of students about palliative care changed, the overall impression of the experience was positive, and students were also able to explain palliative care to people with little or no experience in the topic. However, to determine if they became ambassadors the results of the mid-term assessment are required.