The specialists postgraduate training as an important condition and component of the palliative and hospital care system creation and development
Background. According to international standards and approaches, adequate staffing is a prerequisite and a component of a palliative and hospice care (PHC) system the creation and successful development in any country. One of the main tasks of modern professional training of medical specialists (M/S), who are involved in the provision of PHC to the population, is the formation of their awareness of the patient-family-oriented paradigm, the skills of multidisciplinary (MD)/command, interdepartmental and intersectoral coordination and cooperation. It is also important to ensure careful selection and appropriate motivation of staff. Since the modern PHC system is based on MD, an interdepartmental and intersectoral approach to the provision of PHC, after appropriate professional training, can involve doctors of any specialty, nurses, as well as psychologists, social workers, lawyers and clergymen, volunteers, representatives of local communities and private structures, as well as the palliative patients (PPs) themselves and their family members or caregivers. The purpose was: scientific substantiation of professional postgraduate training of specialists, which are involved in the PHC provision to the population. Materials and methods. Normative and legal documents of Ukraine and authoritative international professional organizations; domestic and foreign literary sources using JAMA, Scholar and PubMed search engines; official statistics data; results of sociological research; research methods: system approach and system analysis, bibliosemantic, sociological (questionnaire survey) and generally accepted medical and statistical methods. Results. The analysis of national and international regulatory documents testifies to the important medical and social significance of the PHC system creation and development. The role of specialists professional training on PHC is shown. The results of the sociological study made it possible to determine: the estimated population need for PHC in Ukraine; the state of the PHC service and the insufficient level of M/S knowledge and the urgent need of M/S for specialized knowledge on PHC issues. Conclusions. Multidisciplinary professional training of specialists is of great importance for the PHC system creating and the PHC availability, quality and efficiency increasing. This will allow the M/S, together with psychologists, social workers, volunteers, clergymen, to provide a comprehensive PHC to PPs and their family members, including medical, psychological, social and spiritual/ religious components.