World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2023 at HBCHRC, Visakhapatnam – 14th October 2023.

A CME on Courage to Care – Principles of Serious Health Related Communication and Compassionate End of Life Care was conducted at HBCHRC, Visakhapatnam. The morning session extended way beyond time with the enthusiastic participation of the teams in all the break-out rooms, intense role plays and discussions.

The afternoon session included sessions on Compassionate End of Life Care provision followed by a few minutes of reflection and remembrance for our patients and caregivers. A video was made to commemorate this occasion. A few caregivers joined us for tea and the CME concluded with planting saplings in the memory of our patients.

Our faculty included Dr Sravani, Dr Sirisharya and Dr Kanchana from the Age Care Foundation hospice in Visakhapatnam and Dr Raviteja, Dr Dolorosa Fernandes, Dr Neeharika, Priyanshu, Alisha and Dr Vidya Viswanath from HBCHRC. It was teamwork all the way with support from the Director of HBCHRC, the hospital CRS team – Dr Pankaj and Dr Shiva and everyone of the faculty and staff.

The message of the day was that Courage to Care starts with one empathetic response…

“Today has been a wonderful day in my life as I have learnt something very beautiful, not just as a doctor but also as a human. It showed me what kindness and empathy actually meant” …from one of our participants!