Palliative Care Training
Palliative care requires specific knowledge and skills to support patients and families living with serious illness. A range of palliative care training opportunities are available in South Africa for doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who want to develop or strengthen these skills.
Here you will find information about self-paced CME modules, recognised courses and postgraduate training in palliative care and palliative medicine, from introductory learning to more advanced qualifications.
Online Learning – Short Courses
PALPRAC has partnered with EMGuidance – South Africa’s leading digital medical information hub – to bring you a series of CPD-accredited short courses in palliative care. These courses are designed to strengthen healthcare providers’ knowledge and skills in managing pain and other distressing symptoms.
Each online course is self-paced, costs just R300, and earns you 3 CPD points. Our growing library of topics currently includes:
Prescribing Oral Morphine in Palliative Care
Enrol in the course here.
A Guide to using Non-Morphine Opioids
Enrol in the course here.
Neuropathic Pain: Identification, Assessment and Treatment
Enrol in the course here.
Gastro-intestinal Complaints in Palliative Care
Enrol in the course here.
Assessing, Managing, and Understanding Total Pain
Enrol in the course here.
End-of-Life Care in Practice
Enrol in the course here.
Nutrition and Hydration at End-of-Life
Enrol in the course here.
Delirium and terminal restlessness at EoL
Enrol in the course here.
Fatigue in Palliative Care
Enrol in the course here.
Effective Management of Dyspnoea in Palliative Care
Enrol in the course here.
Online Learning – Webinars
Short webinars on various platforms featuring palliative care content, most of which are CPD accredited.
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De Nova Medica Clinical Lunch Chats: How to provide best practice in palliative and end-of-life care
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EMGuidance Academy: Ethical Considerations in End-of-Life Care
Introduction to Palliative Care
This short course course will equip healthcare and counselling professionals to assess and manage patients living with life-threatening and life-limiting illness, to improve their quality of life and to support their families in providing care at home.
This is a 10-week course presented on the UCT Vula online platform.
Each of the 8 modules requires 4-5 hours of teaching and learning. Each module is covered in a 1 week period. During this period there will also be an online discussion, facilitated by a palliative care clinician.
Contact: ce.administration@uct.ac.za or kerene.payne@uct.ac.za
Click here to register.
Next course dates: 26 January, 13 April, 20 July and 5 October 2026
Accredited and Holistic Palliative Care Programmes
Numerous courses are run by the Association of Palliative Care Centres (APCC) throughout the year and you can obtain more detailed information on all their offerings, course formats and start dates for 2025 on their website.
Courses include:
Bereavement Support Course (next online courses start on 18 August and 17 November 2026)
Certificate Course in Palliative Nursing (4 February 2027 start!)
Introduction to Palliative Care for Professionals (next online course starts 17 August 2026)
Introduction to Palliative Care Course for Caregivers (next online course starts on 7 October 2026)
Occupational Certificate in Home-based Care
Psychosocial Palliative Care Course (next online course starts 6 October 2026)
You can download the course overviews:
APCC Bereavement Support Course
APCC Psychosocial Palliative Care Course
APCC Introduction to Palliative Care for Caregivers
Direct all enquiries to the APCC Training Team at training@apcc.org.za.
Certificate Course in Palliative Nursing
Palliative care is essential to nursing. This certificate course equips nurses with the skills and knowledge to deliver quality palliative care across various settings. Combining theory, practice, and clinical work, it enhances patient care and professional performance.
Open to all professional and enrolled nurses registered with the South African Nursing Council. Applications are open now and close on 27 November 2026, and the next course begins in February 2027.
Further information can be obtained here or or the registration form can be obtained from training@apcc.org.za.
Postgraduate Diploma in Palliative Medicine
Are you caring for patients with serious illness? Do you require the core competencies to improve their quality of life?
This is a one year part-time course offered by the Division of Family Medicine, UCT. There are two contact sessions of 1 week each; online learning between contact sessions.
Applications are open to all Health Care Professionals working with patients with life limiting illnesses. This includes doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, clergy: any Undergraduate degree relevant to Palliative Care.
Short Course in Palliative Medicine
The discipline of Palliative Care focusses on the management of patients with life-limiting conditions including the terminal phase of the illness and management of the dying patient and their families. It deals with ensuring quality of life and well-being and ensuring dignity in death. Palliative care is a process that deals with a continuum of care from diagnosis onwards and this journey of the patient and the family of that patient mainly takes place in the community where the family practitioner is the cornerstone of co-ordinating continuous care as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
This course aims to equip the family practitioner for this critical role by enhancing the knowledge and skills of the family practitioner in the care of the patient with life-limiting disease and aging.
Duration: 12 weeks
Starting date: 27 July (to 18 October) 2026
Patch Academy Online Learning Platform
Patch Academy, the education arm of PatchSA, offers CPD-accredited online courses in paediatric palliative care for healthcare professionals and multidisciplinary teams caring for children with serious, chronic, life-threatening or complex conditions. The self-directed courses are developed by South African specialists, designed to be practical and locally relevant, and accredited with General and/or Ethics CEUs by the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa (CMSA). Certificates are awarded on successful completion.
For those working towards Associate Membership of PALPRAC, two Patch Academy courses are currently recognised as suitable paediatric palliative care training pathways:
- Comprehensive 9-Month Course on Children’s Palliative Care
- Comprehensive Perinatal Palliative Care Course [Download course brochure here – next course starts 1 Aug 2026]
Patch Academy also offers a number of additional CPD-accredited short courses on key elements of paediatric palliative care, including two free courses.
Find out more at: www.academy.patchsa.org
