EPEC-Paediatrics Europe: A five-year initiative to co-develop and disseminate paediatric palliative care education across Europe to improve patient care (2026–2030)

Abstrakt

EPEC-Paediatrics Europe is a five-year European initiative (2026–2030) to co-develop, adapt, and scale education in pediatric palliative care across diverse health systems, cultures, and languages. Building on the established EPEC-Paediatrics train-the-trainer model, the programme aims to strengthen European teaching capacity by developing an interprofessional faculty network and providing standardized, evidence-based teaching materials optimized for local delivery. Core activities include updating and contextualizing the EPEC-Paediatrics curriculum for European settings; implementing a tiered pathway for Lecturer and Senior Lecturer development; conducting recurring international training conferences that function both as dissemination events and beta-testing environments for revised modules; integrating psychosocial and spiritual content across all thematic modules; and translating and culturally adapting materials into German, Italian, and Czech. Updated materials will be maintained in a restricted-access faculty repository to ensure use of current approved module versions. Evaluation will assess immediate educational outcomes and follow-up dissemination activity, including Lecturer teaching implementation at 6 and 12 months. Funding: This initiative is supported by a grant from the Vlček Family Foundation (Nadace rodiny Vlčkových, NRV).