PalliSim network supports healthcare professionals from any background or specialty to create and lead local palliative care simulation programmes.
We champion collaboration and the sharing of sim expertise and resources.

Attendees of the symposium will see that it is possible to create a palliative care simulation course in any setting (hospital, hospice inpatients, community) which can meet the needs of any professional learner group. All you need is the right support, imagination and enthusiasm.

Our symposium will include:
– A palliative care simulation showcase
– A panel discussion and Q+A
– Access and sign-posting to palliative care sim resources (scenarios, how to create a course, sim debriefing tips, how to fund your course etc.)
– .. and more!

There is no requirement for attendees to have had previous sim faculty training or experience.
We welcome any member of the MDT with an interest in palliative and end of life care education and/or simulation to attend!
Find out more at: https://pallisim.wixsite.com/home 

Theresa Tammy Tran: Tammy graduated from Imperial College London in 2015 and has trained in Palliative Medicine in London. She was a simulation fellow at King’s College London in 2021, completing a PG Cert in Clinical Education from University of Edinburgh in 2022. Since then, she has created and led local and regional inter-professional and multi-professional palliative care simulation programmes. In 2022, she co-founded PalliSim network alongside Dr Anna Bradley to support others to deliver novel palliative care simulation across the country.

Other presenters in this session 

• Anna Bradley
• Sabrina Vitello
• Geoffrey Wells
• Lucy Ison
• Steve Bass
• Mary Spaight
• Sally Barker
• Rachel Boscott
• Ben Anderson
• Jackie Reed
• Charlotte French
• Sharlyn Papez
• Laura Nightingale
• Zoe Palmer
• Nina Kale

This interactive session will explore the therapeutic role of music in palliative care practice in a range of clinical settings. It will be facilitated by a music therapist who has developed creative approaches to the use of music and song and a palliative care physician who has incorporated a broader understanding of the therapeutic use of music into his practice. Each will present clinical examples for discussion with the participants. The session will then focus on the use of creative song writing as therapy introducing participants to approaches that have been particularly effective in palliative care settings. The presenters will then talk about their collaboration in song writing expressing themes including grief and healing, and share some examples of their work. The final part of the session will review some of the evidence for the use of music therapy in palliative care and provide a discussion for the potential development of the practice.

Bob Heath has been a music therapist for over 20 years and has spent much of that time working with people who are at the end of their lives. He has helped to develop songwriting as one of the main pillars of music therapy practice in Britain and has promoted this work in palliative care settings in the UK, Romania and Italy. He continues to work as a therapist and supervisor in private practice, is an Ambassador for The Doubleday Centre for Patient Experience and an Associate Lecturer at The University of The West of England. His book Songs From a Window: End of Life Stories from the Music Therapy Roomwas published in 2021

Viv Lucas was medical director of Garden House Hospice, Letchworth Garden City from 1993 until 2016 and honorary consultant in palliative care at the Lister Hospital, Stevenage from 1996. From 2017 he has worked as a locum palliative care consultant for Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He currently does locum work for Sue Ryder St John’s Hospice in Bedfordshire. Viv is also a senior medical editor for Macmillan Cancer Support. He was President of the Palliative Care Section of the Royal Society of Medicine from 2017-2019. He has an MA in medical humanities from the University of Wales, Swansea, and is interested in how the arts, humanities and music can contribute to our understanding of healthcare. He has published papers on the art and science of empathy, what is meant by ‘healing’, and placebo effects in palliative care.

While bereavement is included in definitions of palliative care globally, in reality it is often treated as an optional ‘add on’ to the main business of end-of-life care provision. In this presentation, Professor Selman will consider the role of specialist palliative care services and providers at each level of the public health triangle of bereavement support, from supporting grief literacy and community capacity to providing bereavement care and referring to specialist services. She will consider implications for clinicians’ own education and practice, and for hospices’ involvement in building social capital and engaging diverse local communities. The presentation will draw on Professor Selman’s research in this field and the development and delivery of Good Grief Festival.

Lucy Selman is Professor of Palliative and End of Life Care at the School of Population Health Sciences, University of Bristol. She is a social scientist who has been conducting research and publishing widely in palliative care for over 20 years. Her research has mainly focused on psychosocial and spiritual aspects of the illness experience; decision-making and communication; family care-giving and bereavement; and tackling inequities, including via public health approaches. In 2020 she founded Good Grief Festival, a public engagement and end of life literacy initiative which has now engaged more than 35,000 people.

In this plenary, Professor Sabena Jameel will explore how practical wisdom—or phronesis—captures what good doctors do, especially in the emotionally complex and ethically nuanced field of palliative care. Rooted in Aristotelian philosophy, phronesis is the moral and intellectual virtue that enables clinicians to make sound decisions amidst uncertainty and ambiguity. It is also the pathway to Eudaimonia—human flourishing. Drawing on her PhD research into enacted phronesis in general practice, and her current role as Professionalism Lead at the University of Birmingham Medical School, Professor Jameel will outline key attributes of wise doctors. She will discuss how medical education can foster environments where practical wisdom is taught, nurtured, and lived. This session will demonstrate how practical wisdom complements evidence-based medicine, allowing clinicians to navigate dilemmas, communicate authentically, and co-create care plans that honour both scientific integrity and human meaning. Through real-world examples, Professor Jameel will advocate for a model of care that is not only rigorous and data-informed, but also deeply humane—where wisdom is not an abstract ideal, but a vital, everyday practice in palliative care.

Professor Sabena Jameel achieved her primary Medical qualification from Nottingham University. She has been a practising GP for 25 years. Sabena has subsequently ventured into Medical Education. For 14 years she worked for Health Education England, initially as a Training Programme Director, then as an Associate Dean for GP training in Birmingham & Solihull. Since 2020 Sabena has worked at Birmingham University Medical School as Professionalism Lead and Academic Quality Lead. She completed a PhD from the University of Birmingham in 2020 and this looked at enacted practical wisdom in doctors. Sabena has published widely and given numerous keynotes both Nationally and Internationally. Sabena is trailblazing in the translation of practical wisdom theory and research into clinical practice through character education efforts and critically challenge of the educational and institutional structures that erode the moral mode of practice and the aspiration of flourishing. In 2025 Sabena was awarded the Joseph Chamberlain award for Educational Advancement by the University of Birmingham. Sabena is a founding trustee of the Della Fish Foundation also the co-founder of the newly formed Practical Wisdom Network. Sabena is a former Hospice Trustee.  

Breathlessness is a highly prevalent and debilitating symptom for patients with many different life-limiting conditions​ – but why is it so hard for clinicians to manage?

Abe Guz Fellow Dr Seb Van der Linden will explore this fascinating topic relevant to all members of the palliative care MDT, including:

• Best practice assessment and investigation of breathlessness
• Understanding the Breathing-Thinking-Functioning model and its role in clinical practice
• Key updates in the pharmacological and non-pharmacological management of breathlessness
• Presenting the results of a survey of current breathlessness support services in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland

We will then open the floor to an open community of discussion to discover what good practice looks like where you are – if you are delivering practice in an innovative way then please come and share it!

Dr Seb Van der Linden is a Speciality Registrar in Palliative Medicine and General Medicine in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. In 2024 he was awarded the Abe Guz Fellowship from the Association for Palliative Medicine and undertook work on the collation of resources on breathlessness management, along with research into equity of access to Breathlessness Support Services across the UK and Republic of Ireland published in 2025. Alongside his clinical work he has collaborated with Professor Max Watson to develop and deliver the Focused Abdominal Sonography in Palliative Care (FASP) teaching course.

Background: Experiences of declining health vary between patients, for those living with different health conditions, and for people with diverse backgrounds, circumstances, cultures and beliefs. Understanding what matters most to patients that we serve is essential to delivering person-centred care and reducing inequalities. Lived experience can and should complement learned experience to develop and implement innovative services that work to reduce barriers to palliative care and better serve the needs of all patients.

Workshop plan: The workshop will begin with an explanation of lived experience and learned experience. Following this, participants will consider their own knowledge from both perspectives. This exercise will enable participants to identify the value of utilising and integrating the learning from both approaches. The facilitators will share important principles of meaningful lived experience involvement through our own experience of a Homelessness Outreach Project in Oxfordshire. The project team included a Volunteer Community Lead from the Lived Experience Advisory Forum. Facilitators will describe the ways lived experience involvement shaped and improved the project, and some of the challenges faced. Finally, we will break into small groups to identify challenges in participants’ work that might benefit from a lived experience perspective. Each group will discuss: 1. How could a lived experience perspective help address this problem? 2. How could you go about facilitating meaningful lived experience involvement? 3. What challenges might you face in incorporating a lived experience perspective and how could you address those? Outputs: • Knowledge of lived and learned experience and their complementarity in approaching palliative care challenges.• Personal reflections of how lived and learned experience inform participants’ work.• Shared understanding of best practices and challenges in lived experience involvement and ways to address these.• A list of issues to investigate/consider for their organisations.

Nicole Satullo: Nicole was a Palliative Care Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Officer at Sobell House and Katherine House Hospice, part of Oxford University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust from 2022-2025. Together with Maria and Lynn, she was part of the project team conducting palliative care outreach for people who are vulnerably housed/ experiencing homelessness in Oxfordshire. She also led the creation of a Palliative Care Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement pool at the hospices to involve patients and families in research, service improvement, and education projects. Nicole has an MSW and MPH from Boston University, and recently started a new role as a Local Authority Research Practitioner, working to embed research and evidence based practice in a local authority.

Maria Hart is a carer and stay-at-home mother with a background in social care and social sciences. Over the past three decades she has volunteered in a variety of community roles, most recently as a Community Lead within a Lived Experience Advisory Forum focused on palliative care and homelessness. Working in partnership with Sobell House, Katharine House Hospice and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Maria brings lived experience of long-term illness, structural vulnerability and disability into collaboration with clinical, administrative and academic teams. Her work bridges lived and learned experience to support more person-centred, inclusive and ethically grounded care. She has a particular interest in restorative justice, patient safety and health equity, and in understanding healthcare as a complex system shaped by relationships, power and trust. Maria is especially interested in what needs to be in place for lived experience involvement to be safe, meaningful and genuinely collaborative – for individuals and organisations alike.

Lynn Erskine: Lynn is a Senior Palliative Care Nurse Specialist in the Community Palliative Care Team (CPCT) based at Sobell House and Katherine House Hospice, Oxford University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. She qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 1989 in North Yorkshire. She then worked in acute general medicine before moving to Oxford in 1992 where she has worked in palliative care , Pain Relief Unit and general medicine . She completed a Palliative Care Degree in 1998 and has worked in the Community Palliative Care Team for over 20 years. She has recently been part of the project team exploring palliative care outreach for people who are vulnerably housed/ experiencing homelessness in Oxfordshire (2024-2025). She is currently working alongside the CPCT to share and integrate learning from the project. She is part of the team in Oxford who are one of the 10 sites in UK taking part in the NIHR funded National Research Project- IMPROVE- Intervention to optiMise Palliative caRe for peOple with liVed Experience of homelessness : a realist evaluation. This involves developing a palliative care and homelessness Community of Practice in Oxfordshire. Out of work she enjoys dog walks with her family, travelling and live music.

Advancing digital technologies are impacting all areas of healthcare and it is clear these tools will play an increasingly significant role in the future of healthcare delivery, including within the fields of palliative and end of life care. Digital technologies include all aspects of telehealth, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, remote monitoring using apps or wearable devices, as well as electronic records and prescribing systems. The benefits of incorporating technologies to support a patient’s palliative care journey range from enhanced quality and coordination of care, improved symptom management, remote monitoring and improved communication. However, it is also clear that there are challenges and hurdles to overcome when implementing these technologies, some particular to the field of palliative and end of life care.

This symposium will enable attendees to hear the challenges faced by clinicians who have embarked on this journey already – we intend to invite 3 speakers (whom we have already approached and are willing) to briefly present their experience working with 3 different types of technology – Dr Rachel Melsom who has implemented an app for patients and carer to track symptoms, Prof Mark Taubert who has rolled out medical education using simulation training, and Dr Sarah Stanley who has researched the issues of digital legacy. We want to focus on the practical issues that they have encountered, barriers they have faced and potential solutions to these. We will then run a question and answer session using the panel as ‘experts’ to encourage debate and discussion amongst the attendees.

In this rapidly changing landscape, it is important that as clinicians we are aware of the opportunities that different digital technologies may offer, both to improve healthcare and to support professionals.

Dr Suzanne Ford-Dunn: Consultant in Palliative Medicine at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, she has worked for several years on various digital projects including digitisation of comfort observations within the hospital setting and creation and implementation of the Comfort Tracker App. She was awarded a Topol Digital Fellowship last year, and as part of this, has recognised the need for greater networking and collaboration amongst healthcare professionals within palliative care if the scope, scale and benefits of digital technologies are to be realised. She is co-founder of the APM special interest forum for technology and digital innovation in palliative care.

Dr Amara Callistus Nwosu, MBChB (Commendation), FRCP, PhD, CF, SFHEA
Senior Clinical Lecturer in Palliative Medicine, Lancaster Medical School. Senior Clinical Lecturer in Palliative Medicine. Lancaster Medical School. Lancaster University. UK; Honorary Consultant in Palliative Medicine. Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Research Lead, Marie Curie North West; Churchill Fellow 2020 and winner of 2024 Pol Roger Award; Technology Editor, Palliative Medicine. Sage Publications. http://pmj.sagepub.com/

Dr Rachel Melsom MBBS, BSc: Career in medicine following extensive career in finance, media and communications. Currently enhancing palliative care provision using digital technology. Strategic thinker, commercial advisor. Excellent communicator – enabling a bridge between medicine, finance and technology.

Sarah Stanley: Sarah is a nurse by background with 12 years’ experience working in palliative care, initially as a hospice inpatient nurse and more recently as a research nurse. Sarah is currently undertaking a PhD at Liverpool John Moores University which focuses on digital legacy in palliative care, and understanding how digital legacy could be incorporated into planning for the end of life.

With rising demand for community-based palliative care and growing workforce pressures, how can specialist palliative care teams support district and community nurses to deliver compassionate, effective palliative and end-of-life care? The NHS 10-Year Plan calls for integrated neighbourhood teams – what does this mean in the context of palliative care?

This 60-minute session explores creative solutions to this modern-day challenge. This session will facilitate evidence-informed innovative approaches to cross-organisational teamwork and shared care.

First, a short, interactive Vevox (or similar) poll will stimulate audience reflections on:
(1) The biggest challenges facing district and community nursing in providing palliative care.
(2) Perceptions of their role/responsibilities (via word cloud).
(3) How well specialist palliative care integrates with other parts of the community team?

Two focused 10-minute presentations follow:
Presentation 1: “Understanding the landscape: A scoping review of challenges facing district and community nurses in delivering palliative care” – Dr Pask will share findings from a UK-focused scoping review of evidence, highlighting the challenges experienced by district and community nurses (such as declining workforce numbers, increasing complexity of care and workload, and challenges achieving effective cross-organisational integration).
Presentation 2: “Community nurses’ evolving roles in modern-day palliative care” – Dr Bowers explores how community nurses are taking on extended roles in palliative care – such as prescribing – while also navigating moral distress and concerns arising from increased responsibilities, limited GP support, and the need for better integration with specialist teams.

A 30-minute panel discussion will follow, chaired by Professor Fliss Murtagh, and featuring researchers and policy makers with diverse expertise. The discussion session will be flexible and responsive to audience size, inviting reflections and contributions from attendees. Together, the panel and audience will explore: “What works, and why?”, with a focus on practical solutions, strengthening collaboration and confidence-building, and sustaining high-quality palliative care in the community.

Dr Ben Bowers: Ben is an internationally recognised clinical academic community nurse. He is an Assistant Professor of Primary Care at the University of Cambridge and an Honorary Nurse Consultant in Palliative Care. Ben leads a programme of interdisciplinary research focused on improving care for patients dying at home, incorporating the voices and experiences of patients, families and clinical care teams. His work draws on engineering design, patient safety and social sciences disciplines to address complex challenges in end-of-life care. Four of his current studies examine the contributions of community nurses and general practitioners to this field. In 2023, Ben was recognised as one of the 75 nurses and midwives whose work has had a particularly significant impact on the NHS since its creation. He is a Fellow of the Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing and was awarded the RCGP and Society for Academic Primary Care Outstanding Early Career Researcher Award 2024 for his exceptional contributions to primary care research. Ben co-founded and leads the QICN Community Nursing Research Forum, with over 1000 members dedicated to strengthening nursing research capacity, leadership and evidence-based practice. Find out more about Ben’s research on enhancing anticipatory prescribing in end-of-life care here.

Sophie Pask: Sophie is a Research Associate for the Policy Research Unit in Palliative and End-of-Life Care, which is funded by the National Institute for Health Research. The Policy Research Unit in Palliative and End-of-Life Care exists to support policy makers to improve care, and reduce inequalities, for children and adults affected by life-limiting illnesses, and their families and carers, including into bereavement. Sophie has been leading on Core Project 2, which has looked at community nursing in palliative and end-of-life care using a scoping review approach and analysis of two datasets. Sophie completed her PhD in Medical Sciences at the Hull York Medical School, University of Hull. Her project explored the use of opioid analgesics in older adults and their impact on their cognition, as well as their family caregivers. During her career, Sophie has worked in a patient and public involvement advisory role, as well as primary care and palliative care research. She has strong interests in qualitative research, understanding people’s experiences of health and illness, palliative care delivered in the community setting, equitable access to care, and patient and public involvement in research.

Dr Idris Baker: Idris is a Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Tŷ Olwen in Swansea, working mainly in community palliative care. He is National Clinical Lead for Palliative & End of Life Care in Wales. The National Programme for Palliative and End-of-Life Care is designed around the principles of value-based health and care and aiming to deliver equity in PEOLC in Wales, across all ages and across statutory and voluntary sectors. He regularly contributes to education for a range of audiences on topics in palliative care and clinical ethics. He enjoys a bit of debate and was once denounced to the press by an opponent as ‘genuinely wicked’.

Sherree Fagge: Following the reorganisation of NHS England, Sherree began working as the Deputy Director for Women’s Health for 2 years. In June 2025, she returned to work in Palliative and End-of-Life Care to lead policy, quality improvement, workforce and Professional Advisory Lead for Palliative and End-of-Life Care within the National Nursing Directorate. This role includes leading strategic nursing input across all healthcare settings, working collaboratively with stakeholders. She will also coordinate the nursing director input into the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. Sherree started her nursing career as a Cadet Nurse at 16. Sherree completed her training and held various Matron and senior nursing posts. Following this, Sherree was successful in becoming an Executive Chief Nurse for a large teaching Trust and had board responsibility for professional standards, quality and safety, infection control and nurse staffing. This also included chaplaincy and palliative care and end of life care. She then began work at NHS Improvement in a national role, supporting NHS organisations to improve palliative and end-of-life care. Using a quality improvement methodology, the work was able to improve the number of Trusts with an ‘Inadequate’ or ‘Requires improvement’ Care Quality Commission rating in palliative and end-of-life care to ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’, an overall improvement of 54%.

Dr Sarah Mitchell: Sarah is a Deep End GP in Sheffield, serving a diverse population in a socioeconomically deprived area. Motivated by clinical experiences, Sarah has a portfolio that crosses clinical practice, research, and policy, as Associate Professor of Palliative Care at the University of Leeds and National Clinical Director for Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care at NHS England. She is an active clinical academic with interests in palliative care, end-of-life care, children’s palliative care integration and inequalities. Her research focuses on patient and family experiences and has led to practice- and policy-relevant recommendations. Sarah was an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2020, and received the RCGP/SAPC Yvonne Carter Award for Outstanding Early Career Researcher. Sarah is the Clinical Lead for the Leeds Deep End Research Alliance and a co-applicant on the NIHR Policy Research Unit for palliative and end-of-life care.

This workshop will provide attendees with information about the reasons why research is important, opportunities within the NIHR, the Policy Research Unit, the PRI and Palliative Care Research Society. Information will be presented about the range of research careers available, potential funding options, and events in the PRI to support further training (2 x 10 mins). An early, and a mid-career researcher will provide an overview of their research journey to date (10 mins each). They will discuss what has helped and hindered their progress, and top tips they have gathered along the way. They will also describe ways in which they have contributed and benefited from the PRI.

We will then invite attendees to network within small groups (20 mins) to learn more about the research experiences in the room (topic areas, stage in career, challenges and enablers. In addition, Amy Gadoud and colleagues (Felicity Dewhurst, Fliss Murtagh, Cara Bailey) will facilitate an area of the room for those interested in delivering research and we will have information about future PRI events available.

Amy Gadoud is a Senior Lecturer in Palliative Medicine at Lancaster Medical School where she is NIHR Integrated Clinical Academic Training Lead. She works with colleagues in the International Observatory on End of Life Care, Lancaster University. Her main research interest is ensuring equality in access to palliative care using a range of research methods from analysing large datasets to qualitative studies. In 2024 she was appointed the first national palliative care lead for the NIHR Research Delivery Network. She works clinically as an Honorary Community Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Trinity Hospice and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Professor Candy McCabe is Head of Education and Research, Dorothy House Hospice, Winsley, & Professor of Clinical Research and Practice, University of the West of England, Bristol. She is a registered nurse and previous Florence Nightingale Foundation Clinical Professor in Nursing. She has worked as a clinical academic for nearly thirty years in the specialities of Rheumatology and chronic pain and joined Dorothy House Hospice Care in 2019. Her research and clinical interests directly relate to increasing our understanding of the lived experiences of those with life limiting conditions, and the mechanisms and potential therapies for chronic unexplained pain. She established with colleagues the national centres for multi-disciplinary rehabilitation for people with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), and for complex cancer late effects. She was the nursing representative on NICE Guidelines for chronic primary pain, past-Chair of the IASP Special Interest Group for CRPS, and past President of the British Health Professionals in Rheumatology. She is a strong advocate for clinical academic careers.

Kathy Rogers is a Senior Nursing Lecturer and PhD researcher at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Kathy contributes to courses on end-of-life care, cancer leadership, community nursing, and research methods for healthcare professionals in the UK and Asia. Kathy’s PhD explores the experiences of informal caregivers in non-malignant respiratory disease at the end of life. Kathy co-leads the Death and Dying Collective: a network to promote education, public engagement, and research in palliative and end-of-life care.

Contributor: Dr Melanie Diggle
Melanie is a Post‑Doctoral Research Associate at the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation at King’s College London. She completed her PhD in early 2025, using qualitative methods to explore bereaved caregivers’ experiences of end‑of‑life care for people living with heart failure. A qualified Occupational Therapist with 15 years of experience, she has worked across palliative care services in the UK and Singapore, supporting individuals with life‑threatening or life‑limiting conditions. Melanie also serves as the Research Lead for the Royal College of Occupational Therapists’ Palliative and End‑of‑Life Care Practice Network.

While death has always been a part of life, we live in a society that has become increasingly fearful about dying. People are understandably searching for ways to cope with such existential concerns beyond those that palliative care currently has to offer. While being careful not to medicalise death, how might we practice a truly patient-centred approach that offers relief from such suffering? Recognising that palliative care has always been “a blend of modern science and sensitive compassion” (Derek Doyle), this symposium invites us to look beyond the symptomology of standard therapies towards more novel pharmacological approaches that, although may not (yet) be widely available, have the potential to improve whole-person care. Gathering the threads that run through emerging research into medical cannabis and psychedelic-assisted therapy, Dr Pippa Hawley & Dr Dave Bradley will weave together a viewpoint that each one of us is not simply a human being, but also a human belonging who flourishes in love. They invite us to think about how the pharmacology of these drugs might help us improve the quality of our therapeutic relationships and what this means for the existential well-being of those for whom we care. Dr. Pippa Hawley is a Palliative Medicine specialist based at the BC Cancer Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia. She has recently completed a randomised controlled trial into the benefit of cannabis oil extracts in cancer-related symptoms. Dr. Dave Bradley is a GP in Palliative Care in Edinburgh, Scotland, and a Churchill Fellow looking at contemplative and psychedelic approaches to existential well-being. This symposium promises an innovative perspective on the foundational healing practices of palliative care.

Dr David Bradley: Having originally worked in General Practice, in 2021 Dr Dave Bradley took on the role of a GP in Palliative Care within NHS Borders, Scotland. Dave has always been interested in whole-person care, looking beyond the medical model to understand the wider context of well-being. He has a Postgraduate Diploma in Systemic Theory & Practice and more recently qualified to teach mindfulness-based approaches through Mindfulness Scotland. In 2023, Dave was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to explore the emerging role of contemplative and psychedelic approaches in existential well-being within palliative care. His fellowship allowed him to travel to the USA and Canada, spending time with researchers, clinicians and organisations in these fields. He is now completing his report, What It Means to be Human. Dave has been a member of the steering group for MAIN (Mental health & wellbeing in Advanced Illness Network), a knowledge exchange and research network supported by The University of Edinburgh and Marie Curie. Dave has also advised Australia’s Palliative Care Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Coalition on their application to extend the licence for psilocybin-assisted therapy as a treatment for existential distress in patients facing life-limiting illness.

Professor Philippa Hawley: Dr. Hawley is a general internist by background, and started BC Cancer’s Pain and Symptom Management/Palliative Care Program in 1997, remaining it’s Medical Director until 2024 and continues as an active palliative medicine specialist at the Vancouver Centre. Pippa was Head of the University of British Columbia’s Division of Palliative Care from 2012- 2022. She is a Clinical Professor in the UBC Department of Medicine, Associate Head of Research in the Division of Palliative Care and has just completed a study of the effects of medical cannabis oil extracts on symptoms in cancer patients. She designed the “Bow Tie Model of 21st Century Palliative Care” as a tool to explain how modern palliative care is most effective when integrated alongside disease management, requiring recognition that survivorship is a possibility. She is a co-author of “Victory Lap: a no fear guide to living well with serious illness” for patients and their families. Pippa received the Canadian Society of Palliative Medicine’s Eduardo Bruera Award in 2023.

Dr. Declan Walsh is the Chair of the Department of Supportive Oncology at Atrium Health Levine Cancer in Charlotte, North Carolina.  He holds the inaugural Hemby Family Endowed Chair in Supportive Oncology, is a Professor in the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and an active member of the NCI Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center. From 2012-2016 he was the founding Chair of an Academic Department of Palliative Medicine between the Medical Schools of Trinity College and University College Dublin, Ireland. 

He previously held the Harry R. Horvitz Chair in Palliative Medicine and was Director of the Palliative Medicine Center at the Cleveland Clinic, and a Professor of Internal Medicine at Ohio State University College of Medicine.  Dr. Walsh is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and of the Royal Colleges of Physicians in both Edinburgh and London.  Dr. Walsh is a founding member of both the European Association of Palliative Care and American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.  Dr. Walsh has served on the Boards of the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC) and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He is currently serving as the Editor-In-Chief of the British Medical Journal of Supportive and Palliative Care.

As a graduate of University College Dublin Medical School, an interest in pharmacology led him to complete an MSc at the University of Newcastle-on-Tyne. He then did a research fellowship at St Christopher’s Hospice in London with Cicely Saunders and developed a joint fellowship with the Clinical Pharmacology Departments at London Hospital and Guys Hospital in the UK. This was followed by an Oncology-Pharmacology Fellowship in Developmental Chemotherapy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, thus stimulating his interest in the development of palliative medicine in the United States. 

Dr. Walsh started the first hospital palliative care program in the United States at the Cleveland Clinic. The program was designated as a World Health Organization international demonstration project and accredited by the European Society of Medical Oncology as an Integrated Center of Oncology and Palliative Care, achieving international recognition for clinical practice and academic activities. 

Dr. Walsh has a distinguished career with many awards and achievements. Most recently, he was recognized by MASCC as an inaugural Fellow of the organization in 2025, and in 2023, he received the Walther Cancer Foundation Supportive Oncology Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Both honors recognize distinguished leaders who have significantly contributed to palliative and supportive care. It was noted that his pioneering efforts have transformed cancer care.

Less than full time training (LTFT) is common among palliative medicine specialty trainees (1). Over half (64%) of trainees work in this way for reasons including care responsibilities, medical needs, holding other academic or educational roles or it may be to support the trainees wellbeing or welfare (1).Research suggests that trainees working LTFT have a better work-life balance and reduced rates of burnout. However, despite being both common and beneficial, working LTFT is not without certain challenges. LTFT trainees report increased administrative errors with pay and rota allocations. There can be challenges with equitable access to training opportunities and rules regarding LTFT work may be unclear and inconsistently applied (2). Juggling multiple commitments within the working week may also be difficult, with an inherent lack of flexibility to most clinical work and many of trainees’ other commitments. We propose a symposium to facilitate a discussion about LTFT clinical training in palliative medicine. We aim to share experiences and concerns and consider what the facilitators and barriers are to successful LTFT training. This session will be open to all but will be particularly suited to palliative medicine specialty trainees who are, or are considering, working LTFT clinically for any reason. We will organise a panel featuring two LTFT trainees with different experiences, along with a training programme director with knowledge of the LTFT processes. We will discuss the relevant parts of the ‘Gold Guide’ as part of the session (3). Flexibility and above all creativity are needed to survive the many challenges that doctors are faced whilst working in the NHS and hospice sector. This is especially true when also pursuing other commitments, be it educational or personal. Establishing a dialogue at the PCC will hopefully help trainees to share strategies and collaborate on improving the experience of LTFT training.